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ARCTIC ENTERPRISE 

IN SEVEN PARTS. 



CHANDOS HOSKYNS ABBAHALL. 



" Still pressing on beyond Tome a' s Lake, 
And Hecla, flaming through a waste of snow, 
And farthest Greenland, to the Pole itself, 
Where, failing gradual, life at length goes out, 
The Muse expands her solitary flight. 



Thomson. 



LONDON : 

HOPE & CO. 16, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
1856. 



iffy-coo 
■ As Ay 



i**£ 




DEDICATED, 

BY PERMISSION, 
TO 

LADY FRANKLIN, 

IN ADMIRATION 

OF 

HER PATIENCE, PERSE VERANCE, AND FORTITUDE, 

UNDER TRIALS UNEXAMPLED 

IN THE ANNALS 

OF HER COUNTRY. 



OFEICEBS 

OF HER MAJESTY'S DISCOVERY SHIPS, 

"EKEBUS" AND "TEKROR. J 



H. M. S. " EREBUS." Complement, 70 men. 

Sir John Franklin, K. C. H Captain. 

James Fitzjames Commander. 

Graham Gore ] 

H. T. D. LeVesconte I Lieutenants. 

James W. Fairholme J 

Charles F. Des Vaux ] 

Robert 0. Sargent >- Mates. 

E. Couch J 

H. F. Collins Second Master. 

S.F.Stanley Surgeon. 

H. D. Goodsir... Assistant Surgeon. 

James Reid Ice Master. 



H. M. S. " TERROR." Complement, 68 men. 
Richard Crozier Captain. 

Edward Little ] 

G. H. Hodgson V Lieutenants. 

John Irving J 

Frederick Hornby | Mateg 

Robert Thomas ) 

G. A. Maclean Second Master. 

J. S. Peddie .» Surgeon. 

Alexander M'Donald Assistant Surgeon. 

Thomas Blanky Ice Master. 

J. H. Helpman Clerk in Charge. 



" The attempt to discover a water communication through the 
Arctic Regions between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, is one 
which has engaged the attention of maritime nations, and especially 
that of Great Britain, for a period now extending over nearly 
three centuries. 

" Rewards for the discovery of a North-west Passage have 
more than once been offered by Parliament. Successive Sovereigns 
have encouraged the enterprise, and men of science have, through 
succeeding generations, urged the attempt. In the earliest Arctic 
voyages no doubt a hope was entertained that the North-west Pas- 
sage would open a safe and speedy route to India ; but this idea 
was speedily abandoned ; and for a long series of years the ad- 
vancement of natural science, and the extension of our knowledge 
of the globe, appear to have been the sole incentives of these 
expeditions, which, sullied by no lust of conquest, or selfish views, 
must ever be considered among the most disinterested of national 
undertakings ; they have served to bring forward some of the best 
officers and bravest seamen in the British Navy, and have added 
greatly to the lustre of that service of which our maritime nation 
is so justly proud." Extract of Report from the Select Com- 
mittee on Arctic Expedition. House of Commons, 20 July, 1 855. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



In submitting his work to the Public, the author 
feels much diffidence as to any poetical merits it may 
possess ; yet he thinks its issue requires no further apology 
at a time when the national sympathies have become 
suddenly and painfully awakened to the subject of Polar 
adventure : it has been his aim to record in the language 
of poetry the daring exploits of all ages and nations in 
the remote seas of the north ; but, most of all, to elevate 
the character of the British Navy, and to commemorate 
the achievements of those great officers, and brave sea- 
men, whose lives have been devoted to the advancement 
of their country's fame in the arduous field of Arctic 
Discovery. 



1 6, Great Marlborough Street. 



ERRATA. 



Page 3, line 10. .For only read inly. 

23, — 30 ..I 'or approaching read approving. 

61, — 18. .For fos^read last. 

66, — 25 . .For through read though. 

87, — 5.. For portentuous read portentous. 

87, — 23. .For lusture read lustre. 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE, 



PAET I. 



" Jacet extra sidera Tellus 
Extra anni solisque vias." 



Virgil. j£n. 



ARGUMENT. 

The subject introduced in an Apostrophe to Home. Eecollections 
of Home, as viewed in their influence on the Lover, the Exile, the 
Poet, the Captive ; hence also on the Soldier and Sailor ; but most of 
all, on the Adventurer in unknown and inhospitable regions. General 
summary of the rigours of the Arctic climes, and the dangers en- 
countered in Arctic discovery. Furtherance of Science the object; 
Fame the impelling cause. Appeal to History. A slight digression 
on the value of a national Museum as a depository of great relics ; 
its archives a treasury of great records. Hence, after a recapitu- 
lation of the horrors peculiar to Polar adventure, the first or intro- 
ductory part of the Poem closes with a brief detail of the subject to 
be treated at large hereafter. 



Farewell, blest Home ! Thou spell of wondrous power, 
When Memory, hovering o'er her natal hour, 
Turns pensive from the busy world to trace 
The old endearments of that sacred place, 
To whose sweet calm each traveller of life, 
Shattered with time and care, or scarr'd with strife, 

B 



Z ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

The ruin of crush' d hopes, doth inly yearn,, 
And with repentant heart sighs to return. 

Sweet scene of early pastimes ! still alike 
Thy charms inspire where'er thy visions strike ; 
Garb'd as of old, or deck'd for future bliss, 
All-welcome thou, that never com'st amiss ! 
Where Memory scans the past with pensive eye, 
Or Hope looks onward to to-morrow's sky. 

Still can thy scenes, in shadowy distance drest, 
Peed with a rapturous hope the lover's breast ; 
With soft remorse the exile's heart control, 
And haunt with holiest dreams the poet's soul ; 
Can cheer the captive's lonely destiny, 
Whose only joy springs from the thought of thee ; — 
He, habitant of the cold stony cell, 
Por whom Time tolls the known and measured knell, 
Who from the iron link and dungeon-bed 
Speeds but to die, his hopes already dead ; — 
If in his fetter'd sleep thy dream arise, 
He stirs, and starts with unavailing sighs, 
And hugs the phantom that can yet impart 
Balm to his thought, and refuge to his heart. 

Wearied at length, the soldier, of his strife, 
Adventure, of his wild amphibious life, 
The seaman, of his restless wish to roam, 
Spontaneous turn to thee, congenial Home ! 
Each seeks again thy long-forsaken arms, 
And time and absence but enhance thy charms ! 

What though strange schemes of blood's unholy trade, 
And slaughterous thoughts the warrior's breast pervade ; 
Though last of enterprise or strife sustain 
Spirits that probe the waste, or sweep the main ; 
Steel' d against all save thee, thy voice persuades 
With a calm eloquence, thy blissful shades 

[part i.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. O 

Nightly in visions of sweet peace reveal' d, 

Through the arm'd terrors of the tented field, 

Steal o'er the soldier's sleep — and still recur 

In dreams to the sea-weary mariner, 

Scorch' d in the calm of torrid depths afar, 

Or pent in ice beneath the polar star : 

He, child of warm emotion, impulse-led, 

Sheds the quick tear, yet scorns as soon as shed ; 

And though he strive by mirth's unthinking smile 

To out-brave the thought, he only thinks the while — 

His life of storms outlived, his wanderings o'er — 

To press yet once again his native shore ; 

And when through favouring gales he nears her strand, 

Straining his eye for the first glimpse of land ; 

Oh ! who can picture, save themselves who roam, 

The boisterous glee that bears him buoyant home, 

To assert at last, Hope's long-expectant boy, 

The sweet fulfilment of the promised joy. 

But powerful most, o'er toils reposing hour, 
When years and musing thoughts their influence shower, 
A plaintive-pleading throng, thy scenes surprise 
The busy breast of panting Enterprise ; — 
He, strange Enthusiast, though endear' d by all, 
That soul of loftiest aim can gladness call ; 
Stamp'd with distinctive honours, the proud wreath 
Of valour won from floods or fields of death ; 
With tried devotion to assure his claim, 
Where e'er he turn, to universal fame ; 
Blest in his social ties ; with ease and health, 
All nature's bounties, all the world's true wealth, 
On shores where exiled kings and patriots come, 
Order's secure, but Freedom's sacred home : — 
He, wearied with repose, with ease distress' d, 
'Midst lavish' d blessings failing to be bless' d, 



4 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Forsakes his soil, turns from her temperate vales, 
Her plenteous garners, and her balmy gales, 
To encounter death, where the Destroyer yields 
The atoning trophies of no battle fields ; 
But strikes unseen, in the unknown distress 
Of a remote and icy wilderness. 

There, while to trace her wanderer's destinies 
On love's quick pinions fond Conjecture flies, 
And half-creates, in Hope's expectant smile, 
Tidings whose sweet foretaste might yet beguile ; 
Haply, while there, some life-subduing blast, 
With frost tenfold infuriate sweeps the waste, 
Chains every limb, and every nerve benumbs, 
And death with sudden consternation comes ; 
As sinks the intrepid Chief, he looks awhile 
In Hghtning-thought upon his native isle ; 
And though strange seas their unknown depths expand 
Betwixt these horrors and that distant land ; 
As life's last fleeting spark his bosom warms, 
Gives back his home and pictures all its charms ; 
Contrite he sighs, with love too late confest, 
And owns that home a paradise of rest. 

But banish from the soul the dark surmise, 
Let smiling Hope o'er fairer fields arise ; 
Say that the North relents, the tempest spares, 
That deserts are subdued, and fate forbears : 
Yet, as he goads his panting soul to fame, 
Can no sublimer wish, no holier aim, 
No softer charm 'midst danger's wildest deed, 
Dispute that soul, nor vainly intercede ? 
Shall Love, though seas dispart, yield her domain, 
Or Home's forsaken friendships sigh in vain ? 
No ! — though awakening pride discard the thought, 
Though zeal's high-mettled energy hath wrought 

[part i.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. t 

That soul unyielding, and that aspect stern ; 
True with the Arctic star the tender thoughts return ; 
There, as Eemembrance haunts his couch of storms, 
Imagination shapes her fondest forms ; 
There, as he musing rests, that steadfast star 
Bears on its beams each tender thought afar, 
Illumes the waste, where e'er his footstep roves, 
And smiles at once upon the home he loves. 

But when at length, a nation's smiles to share, 
The chief, responsive to that nation's prayer, 
Issues a conqueror from the gulfs of fate 
To wreaths of triumph, and the pomp of state ; 
Bepentant then, like an impetuous child 
To the maternal breast again beguiled, 
Oh, then ! in thee his home, he feels, he sees 
The heart's true rest, the spirit's lasting peace ; 
In thy soft scenes that halcyon calm denied 
To joyless wanderings o'er the world beside ; 
In thee, sweet Home ! a richer wealth reveal'd 
Than all the wonders of Adventure's field ; 
Eairer than all his feats of daring done, 
His deserts quell' d, the trophies he hath won ; 
Priceless, beyond Ambition's envied crown, 
A nation's homage, or a world's renown. — 

Oh, Home ! Life's sweet consoler ! — Thou who hast 
Our purest ties, the earliest and the last ; 
Where first the enchanting Muse I smiling heard, 
Traced the wild path, and caught the whisper' d word ; 
Where deathless hopes their earliest beams display' d 
Amid the fragrance of the sylvan shade ; — 
Oh, Thou, that wak'st Affection's holiest train, 
When 'midst thy dear scenes Memory lives again ! 
Thou still, where all Life's loveliest pictures dwell, 
Home of my birth and boyhood — oh, farewell ! — 



O ARCTIC ENTERPRISE . 

Farewell ! — amid those soft charms rest awhile 

Where Memory lingers with a wishful smile, 

As stiU-inchning Nature fondly leads 

Back to thy checkered glades, and flowery meads ; 

Not now at her high bidding do I bend 

To attune the lay that she alone would lend ; 

Not now the winding walk o'er heath or hill, 

Down the deep glade, aloDg the murmuring rill, 

The forest through, or up the breezy knoll 

Can wake to notes of bliss the enraptured soul. — 

Ah, no ! — Adieu, each softly-soothing scene, 
Ye suns and shades deliciously serene ! 
Where meek Contentment keeps her rosy cell, 
And Peace and Love with sweet Seclusion dwell : 
"lis mine full many a league afar to fly 
Where an eternal North invests the sky ; 
A ghastly expanse, where sun nor season glow, 
'Midst seas of frost, and solitudes of snow ; 
Where snows amass' d on snows continuous piled, 
A white confusion in a shapeless wild, 
Glare forth their icy terrors, and betray 
The impervious barriers of a despot's sway. 

Here, if, while swerving from her wonted course, 
Or borne by hurricane's disastrous force, 
With her doom'd crew the ill-fated bark be cast 
(As harrowing tale still pictures of the past), 
Behold ! — if Fancy with no faltering eye 
Might fix her gaze — behold their destiny ! 

Escaped the grim and fury-fronted deep, 
The yawning gulf, the breaker -beaten steep ; 
Where the starved savage couches for his prey, 
And Solitude holds on unbroken sway : — 
The storm, the ocean-rock, the insidious sand, 
The lawless savage, and the desert strand, 

[part i.] 






ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Sparing, consign them to a deadlier host, 
In snows unfathoni'd, and eternal frost. 
'Tis there the all-dreaded phantom of our fears, 
With his worst pangs and grisliest shapes appears ; 
There, his true minister and prompt ally, 
Danger, in hydra-form, sits watchful by ; 
"Famine, Disease, and Death await them there, 
And the low withering form of fierce Despair. — 

Yet, influenced by impulsive souls that feel 
The insatiate thirst of scientific zeal, 
To adventure prone, fired with Ambition's flame, 
And all impassioned for their country's fame, — 
See, gallant bands in bold succession ply 
Discovery's barks beneath that distant sky, 
Where in the waste of an unfathom'd deep 
Spell-bound in ice the unconscious billows sleep ; 
Skilled they to probe its terrors, and expand 
The extent of Science with unerring hand ; 
To watch the varying needle, and descry 
With curious awe the wonders of the sky ; 
To pierce, fur-clad, the untrodden wilds that stretch 
Beyond the scope of eye, or footstep's reach ; — 
Eager for halting Science to disclose 
The mysteries hid beneath that waste of snows ; 
Where Nature palsied, of her quickening power 
Bereft, the teeming soil, the genial shower, 
Wraps in the robe of death her sterile womb, 
Herself her victim, and herself her tomb ! 

But here should native footstep chance to stray, 
Urged to the chase by want's instinctive sway ; — 
Blest for the hour, he meets no hostile hand, 
No treacherous prowler of a border-band, 
Prompt with incumbent force, or stealthy craft, 
The slaughterous hatchet, or the envenom' d shaft :— 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

The Invader comes, girt yet with nobler arms, 
Persuasion's influence, and Instruction's charms. — 

Wrapt into Fame's anticipated view, 
Sanguine in strength, while thus the exulting crew> 
Full of wild thoughts, in emulation throng 
To assail those barriers unsubdued so long ; 
While, steel' d in hardihood, and arm'd in heart, 
With all that zeal and courage can impart, 
They stem the encumber' d bay through fields of ice, 
Where'er reopening inlets yet entice, 
And urge, 'midst whirling gulfs, with struggling breath, 
Through every obstacle their way to death ; 
Till, gain'd the expanse that cannot be withdrawn, 
Where, bound in frost, the incumbent waters yawn, — 
They saw the approach, piercing with trenchant steel, 
A steadfast ocean that defies the keel ; 
The herculean siege engenders no dismay, 
A trench is opened, and they storm their way : — 
When, lo ! o'er wastes interminably spread, 
The Giant-glacier rears his glittering head ; 
And as he sits upon his sapphire throne, 
Where, till the death of Time, he reigns alone ; 
With wakening wrath he eyes the encroaching hosts, 
Dares their presumptuous might, and scorns their boasts ; 
Sweeps with a fearful spell their rash career, 
With power unseen arrests, and chains them there, 
In links of ice deep to the solid wave, 
Transfix' d with frost, and fasten' d to their grave ! — 

Appalling doom ! which yet no fabling muse 
Portrays in fiction's visionary hues ; 
Mysterious group' d for some o'erwrought mischance 
In horror-teeming tale, or wild romance ; — 
Such doom, alas ! — if records soothly tell — 
The adventurous first of Britain's sons befell : [1] 

[part i.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. V 

Wrought by the dark contriving hand of Fate, 

Too wildly strange for fancy to create, 

Such, History' s awful tome reluctant leaves, 

With sighs reluctant such the Muse receives ; 

Yet, as beseems her, prone to picture still 

Passing affliction, or recorded ill ; 

With pencil true (art simple, yet sublime) 

To trace the fading lineaments of Time, 

And show to sons of his existent race 

What features strange impressed his ancient face; 

Sad, yet unshrinking from the task severe, 

Zealous she speeds from her secluded sphere 
On fervid wing to history's speaking page, 

For the strange cause of that adventurous rage 
(Were it or human influence or divine, 

Heaven's dark decree, or mortal's bold design) 
That lur'd, and left, abandon'd to their doom, 
Patriot and hero in a bloodless tomb. 

As some fond form, by Meditation led, 
Scans midst the silent chambers of the dead 
Each sculptured scroll, and culls with curious care 
The various fate that struck the sleepers there ; 
In such wise scans the Muse, with fervent haste, 
Those monumental annals of the past, 
Where Time's great treasury, Instruction's dome, 
A nation's storehouse, beckons her to come. 

'Tis here, 'midst gather' d worlds, Eesearch pervades 
Each region wrested from Oblivion's shades ; 
Cons o'er each curious relic, and surveys 
The uncouth wonders of Time's distant days : 
Lo ! here complying Nature brings to birth 
The marvels hidden in her womb of earth, 
While Art exults, as, rescued from the dust, 
She sees her triumphs ranged, a sacred trust ; 



10 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE . 

A priceless hoard, launch' d forth from every shore 

That sea can sweep, or Enterprise explore ; 

Where Libya's sands the inquiring step control, 

Or where the unthawing ocean blocks the Pole : — 

Eescued from rum, here yet finds a home 

The chisel' d pomp of mutilated Eome ; 

Here her proud rulers, still imperial, shine, 

Her marble deities look yet divine : 

While lo ! as by the enchanter's touch sublime, 

Wak'd from oblivion's dust, and scorning time, 

Prom his unfathom'd gulfs in crumbling hosts 

Emerged mysterious like unburied ghosts, 

Assyria yields her rifted sepulchre, 

And Egypt casts her mystic shadows here. 

Apart from clamorous step afar retired, 
Eesort of busy thought, and soul inspired, 
To contemplation sacred and the Muse, 
There is a haunt where countless tomes diffuse 
Their various lore ; where wisdom's goddess reigns, 
Her bounties showers, and her high state maintains ; 
And History, skilful to acquaint each theme, 
In her appropriate temple sits supreme. 

Blest spot ! here roves Eesearch beyond control ; 
Here quaffs, though aye unquench'd, the inquiring soul 
His copious draught from an exhaustless well, 
Where still fresh streams the unshrinking treasure swell ; 
Here Learning's ample feast perennial flows ; 
And Want can banquet still, and Care repose. 
Blest spot ! a nation's mercy to the bard, 
Whose lore is scanty, and whose lot is hard. 

Stay'd in her pensive flight, the Muse arrives, 
Surveys, and culls from history's mingled hives 
Her proffer' d spoil ; when lo ! a train of years 
Eraught with one due fatality appears ; 

[part i.] 



AECTIC ENTEETRISE. 11 

Awe-struck, she sees o'er each portentous scroll 
The Fates their changeless destinies unrol, — 
Ponders, and fears too credent ear to yield 
To horrors strange beyond belief reveaFd. 

And, oh ! ye spirits inspired, to whom belong 
The gifts of eloquence, and voice of song ; 
Say ye, to whose impassion'd souls are given, 
Though clay -bound here, the sympathies of Heaven ! 
When sorrow mourns, what magic might restrain 
The breast that vibrates with responsive pain ? 
"What potent charm the harmonious bosom reach, 
With power each stern emotion to unteach ? — 
Illusive lyre ! hast thou that magic sound, 
To assure it painless, yet implant the wound ? 
To infix the sorrow, yet withhold the smart, 
And wake no anguish while you wring the heart. — 
Vain, vain the effort of the unequal Muse 
Herself to outvie, and her own laws abuse ; 
In vain, alas ! her sweetest numbers flow 
To invest in smiles a history of woe ! 

Such then — no vision shaped in Frenzy's dream, 
No poet's rapture — such the unthankful theme. 
It tells of seas unpierced, and sunless skies ; 
Of ice-wreck' d ships, and wild calamities, 
'Mid gulfs profound where ramparts, raised by frost, 
Baffle the prow, and hem the encumber'd coast, 
Or high in towery might, from shore to shore, 
Swept by the howling blast, promiscuous, roar. 
Here valour unsubdued, though fall'n beneath 
Relentless horrors, and a host of death, 
Sleeps (such inhuman destiny's decrees) 
On dark, mysterious shores and secret seas ; 
And many a frame, by hopeless famine worn, 
Hath given to desert snows a life forlorn ; 



12 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Or, struck by frost fierce beyond thought, resign'' d 
The faltering pulse, nor left a trace behind. 

But, if the adventurous Muse may yet unfold 
The appalling gloom of winter's secret hold, 
Through lifeless wilds explore forbidden path 
And cope the tyrant in his polar wrath ; 
It tells of regions desolate, where Time's 
And Nature's instincts fail — unearthly climes ; 
Fell wilds, where vainly asks the inquiring eye, 
Vainly the imploring heart a spmpathy ; 
Where in the waste of an unteeming earth 
Nature sleeps on, suspended from her birth, 
Eternal "Winter's undisputed spoil, 
Snows her ungenial showers, and ice her soil ; 
Eegions to mortal eye yet unreveal'd, 
Where Winter, still unconquer'd, keeps the field, 
And Solitude, eternal and unknown, 
Maintains her vast and unmolested throne. 

Yet here, if through the maze of polar night 
The wandering Muse sustain unwonted flight, 
'Tis hers on searching wing those paths to trace 
Where the sea-sons of Europe's varied race, 
Led by the meteor-star of Enterprise, 
Steer'd their bold barks beneath those bitter skies ;- 
To watch them from that dimly-shadow'd day, 
When, in barbarian pomp and rude array, 
The fierce Norwegian, with his boisterous clan, 
And reckless prow, the adventurous quest began ; 
To scan their wanderings with observant eye, 
Pour o'er their toils late strains of sympathy, 
Pursue their devious perils, and explore 
Discovery's self on her adopted shore. 



[part t.] 



13 



AECTIC ENTERPRISE. 

PAET II. 



" In climes beyond the solar road, 
Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, 
The Muse has broke the twilight gloom." — Gray. 



ARGUMENT. 

The Scandinavians. Their early excesses in Europe. Checked 
ultimately by established government ; more especially by the power 
of Britain, where the rising star of freedom first attracted and in- 
fluenced the neighbouring states of the continent. Scandinavians, or 
Scythians of Norway and Denmark, the earliest sea-rovers. In- 
fluenced by a powerful chief, their attention is turned from land- 
ravages to predatory excursions by sea ; hence the first discovery of 
Iceland, Greenland, &c. by the daring sea-kings. Their position 
under a despotic leader, in a barbarous age, instinctively disposed 
them to wild expeditions ; but hence it would appear the more re- 
markable that men of a civilized period should be led away by an 
adventurous impulse from which no beneficial results were likely to 
accrue. The fates of the first adventurers unknown ; those of the 
adventurers of ages immediately succeeding, known but imperfectly. 
The whole concluding with Tableaux descriptive of the various 
disasters suffered by those who have been exposed to the perils of 
Arctic adventure. 



Time was, ere Europe wrench' d her trampled lands 
Prom the fierce Scythian's desolating bands, 
That long effaced with fire, or smote with sword 
(As savage instinct swayed the avenging horde), 



14 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

And, like a tempest-driven tide of old, 
With war's all- wasting rain reckless roll'd ; 
Ere Science dawn'd, or Truth's celestial light 
Pierced the deep gloom of European night ; 
Ere Britain yet vouchsafed her giant-birth, 
Law and twin-born Security, to earth ; 
Ere, reared by her through oft-repeated throes, 
Freedom's develop'd form majestic rose, 
To array in peace her unsubjected steep, 
Or launch her guardian -thunders o'er the deep ; 
While states, less favour'd, languished yet forlorn, 
Their rights unknown, their liberties unborn ; 
'Twas then, to stay the advance of savage war, 
O'er her wild island-hills, behold ! a star — 
Cloth'd in prophetic beams unseen before, 
Like unexpected hope midst ocean's roar — 
Arose, a watch-tower to the world, and gave 
Life to the fall'n, and promise to the brave. 

While early thus the Guardian-isle stood by, 
Instructor calm of Europe's infancy, 
Eull many a realm, sea-sever'd from afar, 
In mute amazement eyed the auspicious star, 
Eyed, yet recoil' d, too prostrate they to scan 
The social ties, and sacred rights of man : 
Lo ! Asia's mingled tribes, remorseless hosts, [1] 
Elock'd o'er her helpless plains and scoured her coasts ; 
And, like the invading pest that sweeps the air, 
Bavaged her bloom, and laid her bosom bare ; 
Barbarian legions, sentenced still to slay 
By lawless chiefs more barbarous yet than they ; 
War-fiends accurst, — where'er her oceans foam'd, 
Or teeming valleys smiled, they reckless roam'd, 
'Midst realms a favouring Heaven vouchsafed to bless 
With every charm of Nature's loveliness. 

[part II.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 15 

Thus many a year of blood and anarchy 
Swept with its nameless sins unnoticed by ; 
The dark dominion of an age of night, 
"When foulest triumphs of usurping might, 
And lust uncurb' d, and causeless deeds of death, 
Gave to the victor his most vaunted wreath, 
And prodigies of crime, till then unknown, 
His proudest trophies, and his best renown. 

Till worn with havoc, surfeited with blood, 
Or, by excess, tamed to a milder mood, 
Wearied, or panting for some wilder chase, 
To throw fresh charms on danger's featured face ; 
Or, it may be, the conscience-haunted chief 
Seeking in unknown horrors stern relief 
From deeds that spoke, and thoughts that pictured worse, — 
In seas and storms, a refuge from remorse ; — 
(For thoughts, in tincture deep of murder's die, 
A conscious soul's avenging agony, 
Unsummon'd oft on fiercest breasts intrude, 
Point to the crime and bring back all the blood): — 
Yet, for the spell, whose strange impulsive cause 
Urged the barbarian to relent and pause ; 
Adventure's thirst, mere lust of wider range, 
Be it whate'er it may, that wrought the change ; 
There, where the wave swept his Norwegian coast, 
Halting, the impetuous chief survey'd his host ; 
And as his eye, whose eager gaze exprest 
Volumes of meaning, scann'd the mystic west, 
In accents, stirr'd by that prophetic glance, 
He told of worlds and triumphs in advance ; 
Where — though the seas were wild, their depths unknown, 
Misty the course, and traversed yet by none — 
These transient perils past, a boundless range 
Waited their steps with glories great and strange ; 



16 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Stores of wild wealth, unconquer'd yet by arms, 

A world of bliss, a paradise of cliarms. — 

Thus, with fair terms aud fables, cont'd to please, 

Of golden reigns in far-distant seas, 

The wily chieftain won the expectant horde, 

Forsook the ensanguined path, and sheath' d the sword. 

'Twas then of yore (as records dimly tell, 
In scroll uncouth or runic chronicle), 
Led by a sea-king chief, whole pirate-bands 
Of Northmen fierce from Scandinavian strands, 
Taught by the raven's faithful wing to steer, [2] 
Stemmed through bewildering mists their dark career, 
Nor stayed their course, nor curbed the ambitious aim, 
Till Greenland's snows the unfruitful prize proclaim. 

Thus strange the attempt : yet deem it little strange, 
If, framed in Nature's wildness, prone to range, 
Practised in plunder, and inured to toil, 
A chief, who lack'd fresh regions to despoil, 
A watery bar the obstruction sole that lay 
Betwixt his restless foot and wider sway, 
O'ersteps the limits of' the invidious main, 
To assure new ravage and extend his reign ; 
Nor deem it strange his ministers of death, 
Yassals, whose lives hang on a leader's breath, 
Creatures of chance and crime, whose sonls aspire 
To deeds alone of pillage, blood, and fire ; 
Their law a robber-chieftain's stern command, 
Their guide his fiery eye, and lifted brand, 
Their trust the ruin wrought by savage might, 
Tumult their peace, and danger their delight ; — 
Deem not, while Hope still pictures the results, 
As those wherein the savage thought exults, — 
Eapine, and that which most their souls hold dear, 
Unbridled range within a boundless sphere ; 

[part II.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 17 

Deem it not strange that Spoil's instinctive bands 
Throng at a chieftain's beck, whose wild commands 
To all their fiercest energies appeal, 
And fire the torch of a licentious zeal ; 
Nay, marvel not, if in so fond a thrall 
They spring responsive to the awakening call, 
Shout to the bark that bears them on, and hail 
The wind that wafts them a propitious gale. 

But when, controlled, the stream of earlier time, 
That pour'd a deluge of impetuous crime, 
Euns, as its wild impurities subside, 
In calmer waters and a clearer tide ; 
When, for Improvement's growth and Art's advance, 
Bursting the ungenial mists of ignorance, 
Instruction rises with resistless sway, 
Dispels the gloom, and struggles into day ; 
When truth asserts at length her awful power, 
And nations hail the civilizing hour 
When Law, the friend of freedom and of life, 
Arrests the steps of predatory strife ; 
When barbarous hordes their barbarous conflicts cease, 
And turn their arms to implements of peace ; 
While Hope, with an exulting look elate, 
Beckoning existence to a happier state, 
The Enchantress smiles, and sings in sweetest strain 
Of joys that in her promise yet remain, 
Friendship, and love, and all those cherish'd ties 
That bind in one, life's kindred sympathies ; 
And Peace, that wakes the smile, and prompts the song 
To lusty Industry the wilds among, 
In all the fulness of her presence comes, 
Tills Nature's solitudes, and founds her homes, 
Exiles afar the demon strife, and brings 
Ambrosial blessings on her hallow'd wings. 

c 



18 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Then marvel that a breast, though steeTd by war 
On hostile floods or hateful plains afar, 
Returning once more to the lap of Peace, 
When Honour is confirm' d, and years increase, 
Prom slaughterous toils redeemed, and taught to feel 
Affection's ties and Friendship's fond appeal ; — 
Marvel such yet can own the ungentle glow, 
With kindling zeal impatient to forego 
The flowery paths of competence and ease, 
For ruthless deserts and tempestuous seas ; 
The soft endearments of a cultured home, 
With all its social sympathies, to roam, 
Self- exiled, on a dark and hopeless quest, 
Inhuman Winter's uninvited guest ; 
Content to encounter, with unequal might, 
His piercing furies through an age of night ; 
To endure, from help, from home, from friend remote, 
Each aggravated ill that shocks the thought ; 
Defeated oft, intrepid still to dare 
The unyielding foe, and battle with despair ; 
Triumphant, on Adventure's fatal field 
Though foil'd, in pride triumphant yet to yield, 
Without his hallowing cause, a martyr's breath, 
Urgent on fate, and covetous of death. 

But grant that partial fortune intervene, 
And unexpected triumph crown the scene ; 
That stern persistence force the obstructed way, 
What was the spur, or where the conquest ? — say ! 
An uneradicable lust of fame, 
A fruitless wreath, a visionary claim. 

Yet, oh ! the eventful issue ! What avail 
(Save food for wondering thought or thrilling tale) 
The ice-lock'd portals of the mystic North 
Wrench' d early thus by savage chieftain forth ? 

[part II.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 91 

Where all those golden fields, their promised spoil, 
Balm of their hopes, and guerdon of their toil ? 
If Page be speechless, and Tradition mute, 
Cease, fond Inquiry, cease the vain pursuit — 
Bootless thy quest — where Darkness keeps the tale 
Of death, and Pate forbids to lift the veil ; 
Inquiry, cease ! let desert- depths betray 
Their dubious doom, or scan the event and say. 

But if to explore their later toils thy aim, 
Who wrought through polar snows a path to fame ; 
Or, curious still, thou would' st the Muse relate 
The unwonted horrors of their various fate, 
Whose barks career'd, where outlaws led the van, 
The issue in the unthankful sequel scan. 

Some, tossed by tempests in the o'er-sweeping wave, [3] 
Besign their ardour to a hasty grave ; 
Spared by the storm, deluding mists involve, 
And leave their secret for some rock to solve, 
Or island-waste where human fiends await, 
Prompt to consign them to a hideous fate. 
Some, that prolong life's dreary term awhile, 
Braved the sea-storm, and past the desert isle, 
A band of reckless zealots, strangely led 
To invade a region that rejects the tread, 
Prom buffet of the inhospitable surge 
To depths more dire, and lonelier wastes emerge, 
Whose rocks, like Eesolution, 'midst the roar 
Of vain, vast seas, reluctant yield a shore, 
Where, in a yet untempted world of ice, 
And howling storm, and rifted precipice, 
And snows that trap the tread, in mist conceal' d, 
A thousand Pates, for ever unreveal'd, 
Open the pit profound of shroudless sleep, 
Where bend no sympathies, no sorrows weep, 



20 HECTIC ENTEEPEISE. 

No trooping loves, with lingering look to crave 
The last sad glance within the closing grave ; 
But headlong launched the wanderer sinks forlorn, 
By rite unhallow'd, and no voice to mourn. 

Eor some who, steel' d with strength's superior power, 
Overstep the amazing steep, and live the hour, 
The Proteus Death assumes a fiercer form, 
Strikes in the frost, or baffles in the storm ; 
Or, 'midst fell wilds to foot of life unknown, [4] 
Through the night's vast expanse erroneous thrown, 
Consigns to lingering pangs, an unthought doom, 
Deep in the inmost desert's loneliest gloom. 
For such — ah ! happier had they shared that fate 
They lately deem'd so dark and desolate, 
Hurl'd down the unseen abyss, or swept in snows, 
To swift destruction's merciful repose ! 
Yet spared, all those unnumber'd ills arise 
The unyielding waste to wolfish want supplies, 
Their hoarded stores (Adventure's precious fare) 
Failing, though doled with all a miser's care, 
Scant chance provides the foul repast for these, 
That feeds not life but generates disease ; 
Till Want, Disease, Despair, a various foe, 
Urge to that pitch, that sad extreme of woe, 
When (harrowing thought!), where plied the intrepid band 
The unwearied effort at their chief's command, 
Powerless unsightly phantoms haunt the scene, 
Such as the grave's sad inmates should have been ; 
Wrought by fell want an unacquainted crew, 
This one a stranger to the other's view, 
Unmann'd in action, spiritless, undone, 
Each sees in each the ghastly skeleton ; 
While, as unclean Distemper works her way, 
And opens to Despair an ampler sway, 

[paet II.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 21 

A hideous scene ensues, the Furies rise, [5] 
And instincts dire and dreadful hopes surprise, 
Till Nature yields, and Life, too long oppressed, 
Hails the destroyer, and subsides to rest. 

But where Disease and Want in vain conspire 
To extinguish lingering Life's enfeebled fire, 
Still fated to pursue the path of pain, 
Perchance a trembling remnant yet remain ; 
3?or such, alas ! fain would the Muse forbear [6] 
To unveil the workings of that wild despair 
That wars with hope, and, in a deadlier zeal 
Than bares the breast to the self-pointed steel, 
O'erleaps restraint, perverts fair order's school 
To revelry uncurb' d and wild misrule, 
Shuts mercy forth beyond the power to save, 
And spurns the hand that wrests him from the grave. 
Lo i as affection wanes, and zeal expires, 
"'Midst baffled hopes and unattain'd desires, 
And Discontent the impatient imp and pale, 
And famine-born Mistrust and Hate prevail ; 
Sever' d at once those ever-stringent ties 
To danger-seeking sons of Enterprise, 
That league of soul, the enduring bond that late 
Had link'd so fast their fellowship of fate ; 
Desertion comes, degenerate fiend, at length 
To drain the feeble current of their strength ; 
Till, reckless wrought, and madden'd with despair 
(As if Destruction lack'd an agent there), 
Mistrust to tumult goads the unthinking band, 
And Revolt lifts her parricidal hand, 
Command a mockery grown, entreaty fails, 
And he who truest served, the first assails. 

Urged by a mere despair of hope to find 
The boon denied to effort uncombined, 



22 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE, 

Some, rather than espouse a causeless cry, 
The deep stern plaint of rising mutiny, 
To unrelenting deserts sue for life, 
&nd wage with raging storms a kindlier strife ; 
But, as the wind's impetuous breath bereaves 
The hardiest forest-tree of its last leaves, 
Sped forth to fall at random flight alone, 
Swept by the blast, and on the desert strown ;— 
Thus, as he strays the solitary wild, 
Tate's restless toy, misfortune's houseless child, 
Prom his last spot of refuge whirrd away, 
Cast forth to careless chance and wild dismay, 
The wanderer sinks, a hapless victim there, 
No hope assures him, and no mercies spare ; 
His last-left desperate refuge but to die, 
Howling to desert winds the unpitied cry. 

Some, less contentious, less robust than they, 
Yield to impatient fate a speedier prey ; 
Submissive, yet with fire of soul the same, 
Perchance the spirit of a feebler frame, 
Yielding where 'twere but idle wrath to cope, 
And calmly sinking with the wreck of hope. — 
Thus, when Mischance her fated victim takes 
Where succour shuns him, and where hope forsakes ; 
In storm, disease, captivity, or strife, 
Where'er opposeless ruin hems the life, 
True courage takes his stand, content to die, 
And sternly mute to the last agony. 

Of impulse too benign, too mild a mood 
To feed the fire of an unholy feud, — 
Their tent of rest and ark of hope become 
Strife's hateful hold, and fierce Rebellion's home ; — 
Some wander forth, each as sad impulse leads, 
Where'er the white-strown tempest least impedes ; 

[part II.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 23 

He Thinks not where, and cares not for the course, 

So it but speed to death, a blest resource, 

To bar from the ignominious living fate 

Of evil triumph, or the rebel's hate ; 

Where wearied Nature may resign her lease, 

And pass the spirit in congenial peace. 

Lo ! onward as he toils, a struggling form, [7] 

Through solitudes of snow and skies of storm, 

Oft the tired instinct, halting, strains to see 

With anxious gaze if comfort yet might be ; 

And, as he turns to approach some sheltering nook, 

Bends from his irksome path, and leans to look, 

He scans, with wistful glance, the homeward sky, 

Feels the quick pang, and heaves the hopeless sigh ; 

And, hark ! while pictured on his pensive thought, 

His home, far o'er tumultuous seas remote, 

Electric strikes, in accents wild and faint, 

Such as the soul pours forth in fond complaint : — 

" There/' he exclaims, " o'er yonder wintry main, 
" That bounds this cruel desert's dark domain, 
" In my own land, my home of gladness there, 
u How sweet 'twere now the lowliest hearth to share ! 
" There while in round serene the seasons roll, 
" And plenty cheers the heart, and peace the soul ; 
" While there the peasant culls with simple toil 
" Kind Nature's bounties from his native soil, 
" And smiling love's sweet fellowship between, 
" Endears each task, and sanctifies the scene ; 
" Or speeds with welcome step his punctual fare, 
" Or, studious still the approaching smile to share, 
" Decks his rude cot (Affection's fond employ), 
" And makes that bowery haunt a home of joy. 

" While charms like these my native plains attire, 
" Where temperate skies and verdant fields conspire, 



u 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



" With jocund sounds and rapturous scenes, to impart 

" The genuine mirth that wins upon the heart ; — 

" Crowned with perpetual storm, and robed beneath [7] 

" In ghastly snows, the unvaried garb of death ; 

" Here Winter reigns ; — here, save the sweeping blast, 

" That adds new horrors to a frozen waste, 

" Or wild lament like mine, no voice intrudes 

t* Within these vast and cheerless solitudes. 

" And, oh ! when, worn with toil, this tottering frame 

" Instinctive seeks overwearied nature's claim, 

" Yielding, unfriended, in the midnight storm, 

" To the cold sleep of death its fated form ; 

" Here, from the watchful home, the fond regard 

" Of lovers or friendship's eye afar debarred, 

" E'en from the scantiest aid compassion gives 

" Where helpless in her pangs affliction lives ; 

" The hastening step, the quick responsive call, 

" Lone, unregarded, and remote from all ; 

" No human sympathy a sigh bestows 

" On the cold couch of desolate repose ; 

" Repulsive Nature spurns me from her breast, 

" And e'en the earth denies its grave of rest." 

Yet cease, poor outcast, cease thy fruitless wail ! 
What may the tears of all thy grief avail ? 
With memories vain vex not thy soul, nor mourn 
O'er vanish'd scenes that never may return ! 
The Pates from yon portentous skies proclaim 
A speedy rescue to thy wasted frame ; 
Soon, wretched wanderer, shall thy wearied feet 
Best in unconscious Nature's last retreat ; 
In bliss unknown thy dying eye shall close, 
While unseen mercies waft thee to repose : 
Vain, vain thy yearning spirit's fond regret, 
Thy sleep is near, thy earthly sun is set, 

[part II.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 25 

Till one great morn of endless light arise, 
Belume thy clay, and lift thee to the skies ! 

The fond burst of that vainly-vented grief, 
That mocks the heart with semblance of relief, 
Outpour' d, athwart the desert's wild expanse, 
Once more sad Instinct flings her asking glance ; 
Yet hope is none. There springs no refuge there, 
Save that wild refuge of the worst despair, 
The dreary hope despondent anguish brings 
To assure the wretched heart affliction wrings : — 
That hope is death ; yet, lo ! the unyielding life 
E'en with that hope maintains a feeble strife, 
Though each strain' d desperate step but nearer treads 
The end Affliction craves, yet Nature dreads. 

Poor child of sorrow, pilgrim of distress, 
Thou hast drunk deep the cup of bitterness ! 
Rest, then ! relenting Heaven disarms thy doom, 
And smooths the path that verges to the tomb ; 
Lulls to a calm forgetfulness of life, 
And spares the anguish of the parting strife : 
The mystic hand, whose chastening ire, alas ! 
Eorbade awhile the bitter cup to pass, 
Seals with returning love thy last release, 
And mercy triumphs, and thy end is peace ! 

Consign'd to fate each unavailing care, [8] 
Each lingering hope abandoned to despair ; 
Lo ! as he strains the struggling breath to build 
(Ere life's expiring lease be all fulfill' d), 
With faltering hand some beacon's lonely pile, 
Memorial sad of life's last bitter toil, 
Landmark of death, perchance, yet left to tell 
That here his efforts ended, and he fell ; 
Quell' d at the piteous task, and weary-grown, 
Subdued, and dragged from wiser instincts down; 



26 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

There as he seeks, upon that couch of snows, 
The fatal refuge of his last repose, 
O'er the lnlTd sense delicious languors creep, [9] 
Till, by the pleasing snare deceived to sleep, 
The feeble powers of fated life give way 
To the compelling charm's mysterious sway; 
To the strange spell resistless yield the breath, 
Oblivious sink, and slumber into death. 

Of some, whose fate the Muse might yet unfold, [10] 
The little left to tell is quickly told : 
An enervated crew to guilt allied, 
Each nobler son self-exiled from their side,"' 
Launched forth as reckless impulse might command, 
They roam, the refuse of a desperate band, 
To triumph in a lawless zeal awhile, 
Where naught that sword or pillage can despoil 
Meets their impatient eye, or can assuage 
The stubborn rebel's unrepenting rage ; 
Till, changed to ruthless hate his desperate hopes, 
In indiscriminating wrath he copes 
E'en with the comrade of his path, or flies 
To frenzy's wilder ends, and, self- conflicting, dies. 

But if perchance survive a straggling few 
The stormy course of peril to pursue, 
Branded with guilt that no atoning grace 
Might expiate, nor time nor change efface ; 
Eor such full soon a thousand ills arise, 
A thousand vengeful fiends their steps surprise ; 
As insight dire prophetic conscience gives 
Into the ghastly cell where vengeance lives, 
Thick-thronging fates with dismal horror fraught, 
The legions fierce of unrelenting thought, 
With persecution's busy zeal infest, 
And haunt with hideous ghosts the secret breast ; 

[part II.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 27 

Till wild with fears, an ever-threatening host, 
Despair their hope, their strength an empty boast, 
With importuning want, and grim Remorse, 
The pale companions of their dreary course, 
At length by tedious stages they regain 
The wild yet welcome margin of the main ; — 
There, they content, if ocean's waste awhile 
With vain yet friendlier promise might beguile, 
And from their soul sweep with the savage scene 
The galling thoughts of what their guilt hath been, — 
Content full well that rolling path to roam 
Though but to waft unwelcome tidings home, — 
While saved for yet a darker fate, they yield 
Their shattered venture to the watery field, 
O'er the frail launch the avenging surges sweep, 
And leave untold their secret in the deep. 



28 



ARCTIC ENTEBPBISE. 
PART III. 



" Even yet preserved, how often may'st thon hear, 
Where to the Pole the Boreal mountains run, 
Taught hy the father to his listening son, 
Strange lays. — " Collins. 



ARGUMENT. 

From a review of the darker features of Arctic Enterprise, the 
poem proceeds to a consideration of whatever triumphs over, or 
escapes from, the perils of such adventures history might be found to 
afford. The catastrophes attested by historical record should not 
be charged to the invention of the Muse ; the truth of such, more 
strange than any fiction ; the efforts of the imagination to deepen 
their distress, ineffectual. Yet, as it is a duty imposed by truth, so it 
is a task of satisfaction to enumerate instances where indomitable 
courage and perseverance have prevailed over every obstacle. After 
a glance at the obscure records of remote ages, the reader is introduced 
to the discovery of Iceland by Naddod, a Norwegian pirate ; barbarous 
emigrants from Norway, who followed in his wake and founded a 
colony in Iceland. Description of the Sea-king and his roving habits ; 
attracted finally to the north and west by the hope of new ravage. 
To such expeditions are to be traced the earliest discovery of Greenland, 
Spitzbergen, and, doubtless, the mainland itself of North America. 
Traditions regarding the sunken shores of Friesland; superstitious 
terrors of seamen in traversing that part of the Atlantic, even at the 
present day. Such fears not supposed to have swayed the early 
rovers ; a slight closing detail of the real dangers encountered by 
them. 



Pausing from fates, whose melancholy throng 
Crowd her dark page, and haunt her spectral song, 

[part III.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 2P 

Prom the deep gulf of time's abyss below 

Rising unvaried save in form of woe, 

Like apparitions to her eye amazed, 

The vain illusions that herself hath raised ; — 

'Midst horrors pausing, let the Muse proceed 

To wake from polar night the heroic deed ; 

Trace the wild steps of daring, the distress, 

The unlook'd-for rescue, and the bold success ; 

The insatiate zeal, the unwearied effort scan, 

Since first barbarian prow the eventful course began. 

And ye of gentler instinct, who retain 
The tale of terror with no transient pain ; 
Who see in hourly ills enough to grieve, 
Shrink from the worst, and tremble to believe ; 
While direr fates, and darker scenes, alas ! 
Best unreveal'd, or unrecorded pass, 
Should yet some unexpected scene surprise 
Or intervening fate disastrous rise, 
Charge not the Muse, nor deem the unerring strain 
An offspring wild of Fiction's procreant brain. 

Ah ! rather trembling think what nameless woes 
Sleep undiscovered in their dread repose, 
By time's unebbing tide for ever borne 
Into that night profound that knows no morn ; 
And, while Disaster tells her own sad tale, 
Let rescued Truth her awful form unveil ; 
Mark then each feature of her varied mien, 
With no false vision to distort the scene, 
And say if e'er appear'd to wandering thought 
A sadder scene by frenzy's dream o'er wrought ; 
Where might Romance a darker scroll contain, 
Or all the Muse's lore a wilder strain. 

Yet little boots it that the Muse prolong 
Her ineffectual flight, and fruitless song, 



30 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

For vain the power of all her mystic art 
To infix that anguish deeper in the heart, 
Whose own sad theme its sorrows best declare, 
And where most mute is still most vocal there. 

And what though Fate withdraw the veil, and yield 
The secret depths of that forbidden field, 
"Whose ramparts dire intrepid might assailed, 
Till zeal resigned her fires, and nature failed ; 
E'en then the assiduous Muse — intent to tell 
What various fates the sons of Search befell — 
There as she scans the desert, and surveys 
Its devious horrors, and its trackless ways, 
Wrapt in the dreary scene, what fears confest, 
What dark misgivings, and what cares molest. 

There as in thought the astonish' d vision strays 
O'er boreal wastes, a dire and endless maze ; 
Eegions whose wild creation seems forgot, [1] 
Shunn'd by the sun, where very life lives not ; 
Eegions of death, wherein no hope beguiles, 
No passion glows, no changeful nature smiles, 
Eut in one spectral form invests the gloom, 
As some wild dream pictures some hideous doom, 
Some cruel exile, yet through woe or worth 
UnsurTer'd, save by those great sons of earth, 
Heroes or captive-patriots, who defy 
Siberian frost and Scythian tyranny. — 
There, studious still to extend Instruction's range, 
Yersed in familiar worlds, to seek the strange, 
While fond Inquiry through the unknown expanse 
Goes forth to trace Adventure's bold advance, 
And, launched erroneous o'er the amazing scene 
Where all his struggles and his toils have been, 
Sees naught save wild disaster to proclaim, 
The foil'd achievements of a wasted frame ; 

[part III.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 31 

The embarrassed Muse a fruitless zeal displays, 
Aud the prodigious Theme itself betrays. 

Yet, though strange scenes and harrowing fates prevail, 
Since Truth enjoins an ever-faithful tale, 
Sweet were the toil to mingle in the strain, 
Whate'er of loftier promise yet remain ; 
So may a favouring god the verse inspire, 
And feed the awakening lay with kindlier fire. 

Lists not the Muse to range in vague surmise 
Through the dark paths of earlier enterprise, 
When savage Nature, in her thirst of gain, 
Launched the frail venture o'er the yielding main ; 
And little boots the unmeet attempt to trace 
Where Quest instinctive led each wandering race, 
The unknown adventurers of a voiceless age, 
Ere yet Tradition's tongue, or Becord's page, 
Or runic stone in rude memorial told [2] 

Each wondrous scene, and signal feat of old : — 
Yet ill beseems, those shadowy times to pierce, 
When, fresh from slaughter's fields, untamed and fierce, 
His venture rude the Rover of the north 
Urg'd through dark seas and misty tempests forth ; 
Untimely urg'd ; the blood of thousands slain 
Cries forth for vengeance on the raging main ; 
The restless spirit of each mangled form 
Haunts the disaster, and assists the storm ; 
Untimely urg'cl : swift o'er his coarse appear 
The avenging furies of his fierce career, 
Perplex a hostile path with darker gloom, 
Unman his efforts, and secure his doom.' — 
There oft in age remote, at midnight hour, 
Arm'd in the terrors of a viewless power, 
The invaded North came forth, a challeng'd foe, 
Swept in swift wrath, and laid the invader low ; 



32 AECTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Or, — in amazing mist involved the course, — 
With the ice-squadrons of his polar force 
Closed to an instant doom, or flung forlorn 
On some sad straud, through farthest ocean borne, 
In all the pangs of ruthless wastes to die ; 
Tor Spoil's unsparing sons a fitting destiny. 

Less luckless he (as Kecord's scrolls relate), [3] 
The impetuous chief, who, led by forceful fate, 
Went forth to wage, on untried depths afar, 
With wild Atlantic winds the unequal war,— 
What time o'er Iceland's solitary shore 
Man's voice first mingled with the ocean's roar. 

'Twas at the dead of night a tempest's wrath 
Struck the bold Eover from his reckless path ; 
Despoil' d the spoiler's might, perplex'd his schemes, 
Marr'd all his promise, and dispell' d his dreams. 
Yet though the unruly furies of the deep 
His lonely bark with ceaseless tumult sweep ; 
Though snows and intercepting mists delay, 
And the huge ice-float yields a dubious way ; 
Though frequent floods the labouring prow o'erwhelm, 
And blasts of polar strength dispute the helm ; 
Seas roll o'er seas from Arctic depths profound, 
And death yawns in a thousand gulfs around : 
From efforts foil'd more fierce, aud baffled hopes, 
In savage grandeur with the waves he copes ; 
Hurls to their reckless rage his desperate life, 
And stems in storms of mist the unequal strife : 
Yet little heeds he where those mists appear, [4] 
Or seas conflicting threaten his career, 
The lurking treachery of the secret shore, 
Or in that voice of storm the breaker's roar ; 
Till, lo ! forlorn yet dauntless, he descries 
Fierce fiery columns from the expanding skies 

[part III.] 



AECTIC ENTEEPRISE. 33 

Shoot o'er the howling deep a ghastly glare, 

And leeward rocks, the dreadful truth declare. 

Now wakes the instinctive struggle for the life, 

No war with recreant foes, a sterner strife : — 

Ah ! little urged he now the invader's aim, 

The extorted homage, or the unsparing claim ; 

Wild-eyed Ambition narrows now her field 

To crags the barest that may refuge yield ; 

Enough for him one rood of desert soil, 

The chief who pined with Europe for his spoil : — 

And little,- — as his gazing eye admires 

With all-unconscious awe those mystic fires, — 

Deein'd he such seeming angers of the sky 

The heralds of a calm security ; 

Those opening rocks that loomed so desolate, 

The gracious beacons of a happier fate ; 

Till he, whose crimes had won a wild renown, 

And almost ask the avenging thunders down, 

Challenge the yet all-equal Heavens, and cry 

Aloud for swift and fearful penalty, — 

He who still dream' d of a like monstrous fame 

In climes unboastful yet of chart or name, — 

Waked by a tempest from his trance awhile, 

Einds, in the deserts of an ice-bound isle, 

A rescued life, an unexpected home, 

Eate milder far than where he yet would roam, 

'Midst her abandoned cliffs, and misty gloom, 

A safer shelter and a kinder doom. 

Thus timely-rescued from his rash career, 
He in whose wake a piteous train appear, 
Naddod, the chance-conducted pirate, comes 
To found on shores of frost Norwegian homes ; [5] 
Till quest revives, and swift from Iceland's snows 
New thoughts of blood and schemes of spoil arose. 

D 



34 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Bold in reverse, Adventure spreads her sail, 
To acquire fresh horrors for Disaster's tale : 
Arm'd at her call, impatient of delay, 
Barbarian prows their cumbrous pomp display ; 
And mingling hordes the hasty venture yield 
In wild succession to the watery field. 

Yet say, what unexampled woes, perchance, — 
What seas, what tempests baffled their advance ; — 
They perished through what pangs, — alas ! and where 
The cruel issue of their dark career ! 

Cease, curious Thought ! nor let the Muse presume 
To evoke the terrors of their distant doom : 
Lest now, while Loves the unwearied vigil keep, 
And hope yet lives with daring on the deep, 
Fresh from the grave of vanish' d years arise 
Some dire portent of nearer destinies ; 
To lend Conjecture's gloom a darker hue 
In some fond bosom too severely true ; 
Eill with new fears the o'er-burdened breast of Care, 
And give to living Grief a new despair. 

Unwelcome shades ! while Britain's fates impend, 
Let fairer scenes and worthier thoughts attend, 
And if, where Record fails some fate to unfold, 
Or still Tradition leaves some tale untold, 
'Twere vain to explore those secret depths sublime 
Swept by the unreturning tide of time ; 
Yet scarce less vain in lengthening verse to spell 
Each storied page, and uncouth chronicle ; 
To inquire, and drag from their reluctant day, 
Where mute oblivion still disputes the sway, 
Each misadventure's shapeless form that fades 
In the dim twilight of her distant shades : 
To pry presumptuous in the scrolls of fate, 
And bid the powers of darkness to relate 

[part III.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 35 

Their wanderings, who with all-untutor'd aim 
Storm'' d the wild way to ravage or to fame ; 
Till flung, submissive to the imperious blast, 
To strew, the sport of storms, some wintry waste ; 
And, like the surge their reckless launch that bore, 
BolTd from the sea, and broken on the shore. 

Toss'd thus by chance, regardless of the hour, 
ImpelTd yet erst by Tate's superior power 
To outbrave the blast, live from the surge, and find 
Eefuge in rocks, and mercies in the wind, — 
At the mere bidding of a barbarous fame, 
Eeckless of fate, the intrepid Eover came, 
A wild excursive life of spoil to close, 
The lonely pilgrim of a waste of snows. 

Such seem'd his doom ; and many a dismal page 
Tells of such doom in a less distant age ; 
But nature, in enduring breasts, hath yet 
A force unknown save in the worst defeat : 
Launched on some gulf where Danger's shapes appear 
Direst, and Death wears every form of fear ; 
There hopeless Yalour works his wildest deed, 
No fears restrain him, and no doubts mislead ; 
Ascendant now, stern, and unconquer'd still, 
Wakes forth the mute resolve, the opposeless will ; 
Where shrinks the unequal soul, triumphant there, 
Eoused in extremes, and great but in despair. 

Haply a passing fear surprised the chief, 
Yet vain its influence as its season brief ; 
A care might cross him, or a doubt control, 
Soon other visions stood before his soul : 
Pierce Eecollection came, a timely guest, 
And stirr'd the power that slumbered in his breast ; 
Woke all the Scythian to his soul of force, 
And shoVd within himself his true resource : 



36 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

When came the Scythian to his soul again, 

"What was despair, fled like a passing pain ; 

There as he viewed, bare to the breaker's rage, 

That bark, his all, his ocean-heritage ; 

That bark that bore him, " like a thing of life," 

Through the storm's tumult, and the battle's strife, 

Shared all his fiery energies, and hurl'd 

His lawless flag throughout the watery world ; 

Par other thoughts, as through the surge's sweep 

He eyed that bark yet labouring in the deep, 

Felt what he was, and what his sires had been,— 

Far other than despair, his thoughts, I ween. 

There with that bark, her crew, and stranded store, 

(The casual spoil of Albion's plunder'd shore), 

Shatter' d, forlorn, the outcast of the deep, 

And forced invader of a nameless steep — 

(Spared yet those pangs, the ocean's lonely doom, 

Or lonelier terrors of the polar tomb) — 

Though from the deep, his wild dominion, spurn' d, 

Swift to his veins the impetuous blood return' d ; 

His flagging hopes ancestral thoughts inspire, 

And Odin kindles all his ancient fire : [6] 

Now waked the soul ; with spirit unsubdued, 

Stern as his fate, the undaunted Eover stood ; 

A moment's commune with his strange mischance, 

O'er the huge scene around a moment's glance 

Sufficed him now : — upon the savage scene 

He dwelt in mute and momentary mien ; 

Eestless below along its oft-swept path 

Toil'd still the surge, yet now with ebbing wrath, 

And left, reluctant, as the tempest fell, 

His prostrate bark sad ruin's tale to tell : 

Why ponders he ? — self-safety might declare 

That bark his last Jeft solitary care ; 

[part III.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 37 

Then wherefore halt ? — what should his will await, 

To assure his hopes or fears, and fix his fate ? 

He asks, — when, lo ! forth from the struggling sky 

Broke the wild morn like a new destiny ; 

He haiFd the omen : instant at his beck 

The impatient crew sprung forth, and clear' d the wreck ; 

Claimed with exulting shout their ocean-isle, 

And piled her barren cliffs with British spoil. [7] 

'Twas then full many a chief of Norman note 
(Fit pioneer of icy realm remote), 
Through seas and storms, a wild tempestuous way, 
Storms kindlier yet and seas less wild than they, 
Clove their dark course ; — and many a restless son,— 
Swept from the home- domain their swords had won, 
Domains those swords no longer could defend, — 
Fled to the savage seas as to a friend ; 
And, well-content their forfeit lives to save, 
Though but to yield them to the ocean's grave ; 
Bless' d in the storm might wildest chase away 
The wilder fury of a despot's sway, — 
They gain the isle, and in her fastness sure, 
In her cold snows and icy cliffs secure, 
For twice two hundred stormy years defy 
The galling yoke of Norway's tyranny. . [8] 

Yet think not Peace her holy influence shed, 
Or mercy triumpli'd when an outlaw fled, 
Nor deem, alas ! that Freedom's outraged laws, 
Or Justice baffled in some sacred cause 
Prompted his flight ; lawless ambition fired 
Each breast, and all the robbers zeal inspired. 

Spoilers themselves, yet of that stubborn school 
That owns no homage to the Spoiler's rule, 
They marvell'd much what recreant hand would yield 
To one engrossing chief each conquer' d field ; — 



38 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

With crews congenial to each, ocean-lord, 
Broke from the bondage their fierce souls abhorr'd, 
And fled where'er to yet unrifled strands 
Ocean's wide plain a yielding path expands. — 
There was their world, the unbridled spirit there 
Kevell'd in strength, and wandered free as air ; 
The waters were their world, the impatient life 
Of winds and waves to them congenial strife ; 
Bebels at home, no despot-power controlled, 
Where the wide sea, alike rebellious, roll'd. 

But scope thus boundless, power thus unrestrain'd, 
And all their savage liberty regained, 
New-edg'd their lusts, and stung their souls to feel 
Rapine's fierce thirst with all a tyrant's zeal : 
And he who fled from tyranny, content 
With his own sway in his own element, 
Eesolved henceforth to exalt his views, and reign 
Himself the unscrupulous tyrant of the main.— - 
No subject-lord now of a vassal-band, 
He ruled the waters with a king's command ; 
His palace a rude bark, his subjects few 
A reckless horde, yet not unfaithful crew ; 
Bound by no statute, by no law restrain' d, 
Wild as the sea the imperial Rover reign'd ; 
Throned on the surge, with empire all as wide, 
And range as boundless as the ocean-tide, 
Where'er its billows beat his sceptre sway'd, 
Each tide bore tribute, and each strand obey'd. 

Such chieftains thus, the tyrants of their day, 
Held the wide deep in undisputed sway ; [9] 

Balk'd of some spoil, 'twere but a passing pain, 
The waves urged onward to some new domain ; 
Forced from one field of rapine but to reap 
A richer harvest on some neighbouring steep. — 

[part hi.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 6\) 

Thus, tyrant-like, as rolls the encroaching surge, 
Swept from one shore another to submerge, 
While distant strands, still as he onward flows, 
A deluged waste, his ebbing depths disclose, — 
Thus roved they, as the impetuous will approved, 
Like their own seas, and ravaged as they roved ; — 
Till cloy'd, or weary of each wasted soil, 
Where Bum left no fields for further spoil, 
In boisterous zeal untamed, and ill at ease, 
They wrought fresh inroads in untravers'd seas ; 
Imaged new spoil beneath another sky, 
Woke the wild hope, and fired the insatiate eye. — 

Then first 'twas theirs those mystic seas to explore, 
Where nought save polar billows swept before ; 
To teach their keels that dubious path to plough, 
Where thickening icebergs crush the encroaching prow ; 
Their impulse first the infant chart to inform 
Of shores untravers'd yet but by the storm ; 
Where Greenland shrouds in mist her awful brow, 
Lost in herself, a boundless waste of snow; [10] 
Or devious still, where, in far-distant skies, 
Crown' d with cold death, Spitzbergen's mountains rise, 
And Winter, stretch' d continuous to the Pole, [11] 
Holds in eternal ice his dark control. — 

But if, by gale of kindlier breath impell'd, 
A various course the adventurous Rover held ; 
Haply his fate those gorgeous scenes to attain 
(The destin'd treasure of the western main), 
Where regions erst of passing beauty crown'd 
The Atlantic wave, in arts and arms renown' d ; 
Eealms favour' d by the gods, transcendent isles, 
Teeming with life, and rich with priceless spoils ; — 
Yet for, perchance, some dark mysterious crime, 
Doom'd by the avenging Fates, and swept from time, 



40 AECTIC ENTERPRISE. 

In one dire night (such the decree of Heaven), 
By the ocean-earthquake from their centre riven, 
In billowy depths they found their darksome bed, 
In one vast gulph entomb' d, a nation's dead. [12] 

Wondrous ! — and yet no fabling muse records 
The spectral tale their dreary fate affords : — 
For still in many an old time-honour' d spot, 
The sailor's home on sea-beat shore remote ; — 
When midnight sends her social bliss around, 
'Mid suasive looks and circling cups profound ; 
And many a wild mishap, and freak of mirth, 
Call'd by the magic-hour again to birth, 
In Eecollection's busy train recur 
To the worn breast of ancient mariner : — 
There, as with all the veteran's look sublime, 
That lives, the light of many a vanish'd time, 
He scans the expectant crew, takes wistful up 
The inspiring tube, and quaffs the charmed cup ; 
Shapes each old course again, and tries to steer 
His wandering thought through many a rolling year ;■*•■ 
True to his call, a dark mysterious train 
Bise forth like ghosts from ocean's grave again ; 
And as the sea-wind's hollow gust the while 
Howls through each cranny of the mouldering pile, 
And in mute awe, with harrow'd looks and pale, 
Yet all-responsive to the appalling tale, 
Each rustic ranged around the social fire, 
Caught with the spell, draws nigher still and nigher, — • 
Charm' d from the inmost cell, all-breathless there 
Each tiptoe-listener comes, and thrills to hear, 
How from unmeasured fathoms of the deep, 
Where Eriesland's wave-subjected deserts sleep, — [13] 
Though seas have roll'd, blown by the Atlantic storm, 
The sands of ages o'er each perish'd form, — 

[part hi.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 41 

Still from their buried breasts, at that dark hour, 

When Midnight comes with all her spectral power, 

Aerial shades in mortal shape again 

Pervade the tempest, and possess the main : — 

And still 'tis told, — in accents sooth and fair 

Men who have lived their lives at sea declare, — 

Should adverse winds the fated bark delay 

Devious, and to those fearful depths betray, — 

Emerging oft from ocean's caves below, 

Strange shrieks of pain, and hideous sights of woe, 

With dire portent the pilot's breast alarm, 

And haunt his spirit with a dreadful charm : — 

But great Resolve, that never knew control, 

With the all-unyielding impulse mans his soul ; 

Sternly he plies, though powers opposeless still 

Confound his course, and counteract his skill ; 

Strains with indignant valour at the helm, 

Though ghosts obstruct, and speaking seas overwhelm ; 

Prone to the wheel, at length with faltering hand, 

Baffled, he yields to some unknown command ; 

Halts, spell-bound, at the helm, nor dares to brave 

The threatening tumults of that fearful wave. — 

Such is the tale, not baseless Fame's alone, 
Which still Tradition hallows as her own ; 
And many a chief, and many a stalwart crew, 
Live yet to attest, and sternly swear 'tis true. 

Yet to say sooth, no shadowy fears subdued 
Norway's fierce sons, they were of other mood ; 
Their bosoms nursed no visionary cares, 
Far other instincts, other thoughts were theirs : 
No unsubstantial ghosts their prows detain, 
But Death's stern self existent in the main ; 
Fate's spectral semblance thwarts not their career, 
But Fates with all their powers of death appear. 



4)2 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

When tempests, waked in all their polar force. 

Swept them to deserts as a last resource, 

A last sad chance of fearful life's escape 

From the unregarded shoal, or viewless cape, — 

'Twas theirs to struggle for a lingering breath 

With all the stern realities of death ; 

Dash'd to the shore of some remote and rude 

Eegion of storms, an awful solitude, 

Where nought save rocks or lifeless snows surround 

Their steps, or, wild with many a gulf profound, 

That waste of waves, in whose dark depths concealed, 

Eull many a darker fate sleeps unreveal'd, 

Where howls the blast on Scotia's utmost shore, 

Or Foero lonely midst an ocean's roar. [14] 



[part hi.] 



43 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

PAET IT. 



: Et tantas audetis tollere moles ?" 

Virgil. Mn. 



AEGTTMENT. 

The excursions of the Norwegian Sea-kings the first germ of those 
Polar expeditions which have been continued, with little intermission, 
to the present day. Distinction between the expeditions of the time 
being, and those of distant ages ; these having been merely predatory, 
while the former were undertaken for purposes of science. — Notices of 

the followers in the wake of Naddod Eirek. — Thorwald. — Lief. 

— Thorstein. — Ohthere. — Madoc. — Pytheas. — Nicolo Zeno. A 
new era of discovery commences with the introduction of the mariner's 
compass into European navigation. Eeflections arising from a con- 
sideration of this mysterious guide. The unseen force of the Magnet 
an emblem of the Divinity, a part of that Power. A knowledge of 
the unerring action of the needle becomes a source of consolation to 
the Merchant, the Lover, or the Bride, who may have their dearest 
interests on the deep : Pictures of each. Yet the compass the greatest 
boon to adventurers in unknown seas. Notices of Columbus. — 
Cabot. — Marco Polo. — Vasco de Gama. — The Cortereals.— 
Barentz. — Behrlng. — Concluding with a brief review of the Mari- 
time States of Europe, all of which, with the single exception of 
Britain, failed alike in their attempts at Polar discovery. 



Such was Adventure's germ : Erom casual birth 
Obscure thus grew the excursive impulse forth, 



44 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Whence, through untutored nature's instincts, rise 

The first crude schemes of that strange Enterprise, 

Whose zealots still the unthankful quest renew, 

Still shape the expected course, and still pursue ; 

And, like the followers of some creed whose faith 

Misleads the footsteps, and obscures the path, 

Delusion's fools, the victims of self-will, 

In a vain cause the all-willing martyrs still, — 

With fruitless zeal, and unrequited toil, 

Still, — still pursue a visionary spoil, 

Where springs from foil'd exploit their proudest wreath, 

And their best promise from the hope of death. 

Of such hereafter : Such wild deeds require 
The strains, alas ! of a far loftier lyre ; 
Such deeds a more than passing tribute claim, 
For such, though wild, have yet a healthy fame, 
With the foul taint of no excess imbued, 
By spoil untarnished, and unstained with blood. 

Par other famed, Norwegian Eirek shone, [1] 
The dark usurper of a watery throne : 
A son of wilclness, like his fell compeers, 
Little by conscience sway'd, and less by fears ; 
The destined ravager of field and flood, 
Nursed in the lap of sin, baptized in blood, 
And of a name that brands, a name of dread, 
Prom hue of foulest guilt inherited. — 
Thorwald, his sire, an exiled homicide, 
Went for his crime to Iceland's shores, and died ; 
Bequeathed yet dying, like a precious crown, 
To his son's brow, the demon-instinct down ; 
And to that son — who thus imbibed the fire 
And fierceness of his formidable sire ; 
Caught all his crime, walked in his bloody course, 
A gloomy savage, stranger to remorse ; 

[part IV.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 4)5 

In guilt the master -spirit of his age, — 

To Eirek 'twas a welcome heritage. 

In the dark genius of that sire apace 

(The enormous founder of a lawless race), 

Grew forth, adult in crime, the docile son, 

To achieve whatever his sire had left undone ; 

Till, filTd the sum of his flagitious time, 

He shared the dire yet certain fate of crime ; 

Hurled to his end, a grave without its rest, 

In death unpitied, as in life unblest. 

A truce to such ; nor longer let the Muse 
In dismal strain the atrocious theme diffuse ; 
Nor once upon the dark conjecture dwell, 
What pangs subdued him, or what fate befell; 
Enough that 'twas unknown : — To us 'tis given 
To brand the crime, but leave the rest to Heaven ; 
Sure in the justice of the eternal skies 
Supreme, where Yengeance waits his enemies. 

A truce to such ; — Fly we the hateful theme, 
As from the fates of some forbidding dream, 
Whose shapeless terrors, failing to retire, 
E'en though the spectres with the scene expire, 
The awaken' d sleeper's awe-struck thoughts control, 
Hover around his path, and haunt his soul. — 

Pass we where friendlier visions wake their claims, 
Telling of still unwrought yet worthier aims ; 
And thence to friendlier still : for what avail 
Deeds of obscure and questionable tale, 
Where all save vague conjecture's traces fail. 
Yet he who, wild as his Norwegian steep, 
Went forth, the true Red Rover of the deep ; 
And by a thirst more sanguine, deed more dire, 
Better' d the instruction of his savage sire ; — [2] 
(As oft 'tis seen, from seed of wildest root 
Springs forth a tree that bears the goodliest fruit,) 



4 b ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Thiswise it fell ; a fiend, whose guilt full-grown 

Bore all the blushes of its red renown, 

Gave to the shores he had despoiTd a child, 

Whom Nature's instincts, than his sire's less wild, 

Benignant nursed, and in the adventurous Lief [3] 

Seem'd to give promise of a gentler chief ; — 

Nor vainly thus ; for as he grew he gave 

Hopes of that holier zeal, the zeal to save. 

No harrowing thoughts disturb'd his spirit's path, 

Save of remorse for his sire's lawless wrath ; 

Born of the blood of those who lived by spoil, 

No son was he to invade a peaceful soil 

Save at the impulse of a nobler toil : 

Though train'd in all Adventure's various sins, 

Even with his youth a worthier zeal begins ; 

A foe to no one save the friend of vice, 

He gave himself a willing sacrifice ; 

And though he roved as roved his sires before, 

He went not to destroy, but to restore ; 

To cleanse the current of the ancestral fame, 

And from himself infuse a purer claim ; 

Went forth in the superior hope sublime 

To atone their deeds, and compensate their crime. — 

With shadowy step from Record's mingled host 
Emerging lonely like some midnight ghost, 
Comes now, in yearning Nature's anxious mien, 
One fond enthusiast yet upon the scene. — [4] 
He, scion of the same fell sire with Lief, 
Of path more lonely, and career more brief ; 
The piteous martyr of a pious rage, 
And wanderer of a hopeless pilgrimage ; 
Went forth, self -urged, a brother's bones to save, 
And left his own in Baffin's wintry wave. — 

[part IV.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 47 

Here pause we : nor let Doubt presume to tell 
What death of billow or of blast befell 
That fated fleet remorseless Eirek gave 
To seek in desert seas the inglorious grave ; — [5] 
Or, midst those tides that wash with ceaseless roar 
Eroin Greenland's cliffs, and Cherie's lonely shore, [6] 
To where the wolf howls through the empty waste 
Of Lapland naked to the northern blast, — 
To say what terrors of the ice-built steep, 
Or yet-unknown disaster of the deep, 
Struck Cambrian Madoc from his rash career, [7] 
Or blocked the excursive bark of bold Ohthere. 

Close we the scene ere vague Conjecture sway 
The Muse, mistrustful of the uncertain day, 
To trace what course inquiring Pytheas held, [8] 

Urged by what zeal, or to what quest impell'd, 
When Nature's self opposed the unmeet intent, 
And barr'd his path with a new element : — 
Or in scarce less presumptuous strain relate 
Where that Yenetian pilot found his fate, [9] 

Who, onward urged his stormy course to keep 
Prom the bleak bounds of Scotia's farthest steep, 
Abandon'd to the blast his ocean-quest, 
And fell forlorn, an unexpected guest, 
On Eriesland's shores the outcast's home to crave, 
Eriesland all-powerless still herself to save. 

Of such was fame when Europe's days were young, 
Eame, save in Runic rhyme, as yet unsung • 
Eame, in good sooth, but little skill'd to infuse 
Eire in her lay, or elevate the Muse : 
But while they vanish with their dubious day, 
And aught they boast of loftier deed away, 
A worthier era opens to the view, 
To whose great sons a worthier wreath is due. — . 



48 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

No longer now, launched from Norwegian strand, 
Whole pirate-fleets their lawless sails expand ; 
No longer, reckless borne on every breeze, 
Their flags insult the subjugated seas. 
Steadfast of soul, alike untaught to feel 
Quest's aimless hope, or Spoil's inglorious zeal; 
To nurse unholy thoughts of blood, or claim 
The hateful greatness of a lawless fame ; — 
Eesearch wakes forth ; — a manlier impulse now 
Inspires the Bover's soul, and speeds his prow ; 
Struck with the dangerous charm, Science obeys, 
Nor doubt nor dread her anxious course delays ; 
No shore invites save what the desert shows, 
No spoil save that the wildest waste bestows ; 
Such yet suffice : — bold Enterprise spreads forth 
His suasive sail, and points her to the north ; 
Where nought save wintry wilds of ice and air 
Invest the scene, to search new regions there ; 
To the vague map the watery bound impart, 
Outline the limit, and convince the chart ; 
Prom a new nature cull new spheres of thought, 
And bear from wond'rous climes, as yet unsought, 
New funds of treasure to her various store, 
Stretching her steps to worlds unreached before. — 

Yet not alone the heroic zeal that bore 
Enthusiast Science to that stormy shore, 
Sustained her ; the quick Spirit of the spheres 
Whispers a wonder that enchants her ears ; 
A spell, whose viewless influence mutely told 
Her faltering prow the unswerving course to hold- 
No more the pilot, uninstructed still, [10] 
Plies his grave task with hesitating skill ; 
No longer now, lost in bewildering storm, 
Welcomes a beacon in each passing form ; 

[part IV.] 



ARCTIC ENTEEPEISE. 



49 



Led by the looming of the midnight shore, 

The snow-crowned summit, or the breaker's roar ; 

Or, dim- descried through hovering mists afar, 

The inconstant guidance of the distant star : — 

No more that feathered wanderer of the dark, 

The important pilot of the Kover's bark, 

Borne on the pinion of prophetic flight, 

Sage bird, the instinctive raven stemmed the night. — [11] 

Fraught with a more convincing power than these, 

There comes a Spirit from far Indian seas ; [12] 

A Spirit that might a priceless secret tell, 

And still subserve, a faithful oracle ; 

A Spirit of truth, whose sleepless power defies 

Tempests the fiercest that might sweep the skies ; 

Still steadfast sways, though wildest oceans roll, 

And points with changeless virtue to the Pole. — 

Thus by benignant Heaven 'twas whisper' d how 
Commerce a speedier course should steer her prow ; 
To lead Eesearch a safer path to fame, 
Thus, all- divine, the electric Wonder came. 

Nor came alone : — now waken' d Ardour copes 
In all the energy of new-born hopes ; 
Search speeds afield, and Yalour, reassured, 
Forgets his toils, his pangs, his deaths endured ; 
And, arm'd with more than human instinct, goes 
O'er treacherous sands, strange seas, and trackless snows. — 

Mysterious agent ! timely boon from Heaven 
To Earth's erroneous sons in mercy given ! — 

Emblem of Him, part of His power divine, 
Who, Centre of a vast unknown design, — 
Though other worlds, by mortal eye unseen, 
Countless, in other systems intervene, — 
Visits His utmost orb, and from afar, 
Rules in each sphere, and lives in every star ; 

E 



50 A.RCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

And watchful o'er His worlds, intent to teach 
Each law His Providence assigns to each, 
Presides in secret o'er each teeming earth, 
And spreads Creation's gorgeous banquet forth ; 
Eeceives His humblest creature's cry, and gives 
His fulness forth where the quick instinct lives ; 
Yields yet to one alone the power to scan 
The amazing workings of His mystic plan. — 

To this, His favourite child, He gives to feel 
Science' deep charm with ever-thirsting zeal : 
Yet he, poor mortal, oft misled to stray 
Beyond the precincts of his feeble day, 
To depths unknown where darkness, tide, and storm, 
In conflict dire the onward path deform ; 
Like the lost wanderer of Adventure's seas, 
Drifted amain, the sport of every breeze ; 
Like him, alas ! his course beneath the skies 
Becomes one strange bewildering enterprise : — 
Frail, liable to ill, and darkly blind 
Beyond the bounded path by Heaven assign' d, 
Little avails his own unaided force 
To find, or to preserve, the righteous course; — 
But from above, a never-failing Friend 
Instructs, and leads his blindness to the end; 
Suggests in secret, with descending might, 
The wrong to shun, and to pursue the right ; 
And — as the prompting spirit of the north 
Conducts through storms the ocean- wanderer forth, — 
Permits each mortal course, but points from high 
To the blest calms of Immortality. — 

Part of His power, emblem of Him in this, 
That thou canst guide and canst not guide amiss ; 
All-wondrous charm ! — what priceless mercies dwell 
In the mute virtue of thy mystic spell ! — 

[part IV.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 51 

With shrewd Inquiry's all-important air, 
And looks that glance beneath a brow of care, 
Lo ! the grave merchant plays his worldly part, 
Along the cabled quay, or swarming mart ; — 
He knows his bark in practised hands and true, 
A skilful pilot, and a trusty crew ; 
Yet adverse winds to treacherous rocks betray, 
And treacherous sands that choke the watery way ; 
And when Sleep shuts his cares within his breast, 
And thoughts of direful wreck invade his rest ; 
Sudden he starts ; — the gathering gusts he hears 
Confirm his dreams, and realize his fears ; — 
Yet, while around his couch regardless blow 
The heightening blasts to aggravate his woe, 
One thought of Thee, his guardian on the deep, 
Calms all his fears, and lulls his cares to sleep. — 

But the fond maid, whom flattering Hope decoys 
Into the golden dream of future joys, — 
Roused from a revelry of bliss to rue 
The morn that dooms her to the last adieu ; 
The last sad morn that wakes the unwelcome breeze, 
To waft her lover to far- distant seas ; 
There to be toss'd as tide and tempest urge, 
Torn from her arms, and wedded to the surge : — 
When, still in Sorrow's cell a lingering guest, 
Hope, entertained no more, deserts her breast ; 
And the friend's pity, and the parent's prayer 
Point but to Resignation's mute despair : — 
How hast Thou power, though cureless pangs intrude, 
To inspire new hope, and bless her solitude ; 
And speak, true as thy faith unto the Pole, 
Peace to her couch, and comfort to her soul ! — 

Or scarce less hapless She, content to share 
With one loved breast each sorrow and each care ; 



52 AECTIC ENTEEPEISE. 

To ask no joy whose earthly thought shall stray 

Beyond the blameless wishes of the day ; 

All that her fancy forms of bliss, complete, 

While to her own that breast responsive beat : — t 

But He, fond partner of her hopes and fears, 

Whose form alone her daily path endears ; 

Should Fate imperious force him from his home, 

Where Fame invites, or Honour bids, to roam; 

On Danger's distant field, perchance, to die, 

As busy Pear might shape his destiny ; — 

She, once so blest, now heart-wrung at the doom 

That hurls her peace to an untimely tomb ; 

Partakes each pang her lord's changed aspect wears, 

And feels the fate his busy haste prepares ; 

Yet studious now his last sad steps to share 

With all unfeigned Devotion's punctual care, 

Descends, in all that helplessness of grief 

That shuns all refuge as a vain relief, 

And all those thoughts of terror, to the shore, — 

Those dreadful thoughts that they shall meet no more;- 

There sees him borne along the billowy waste, 

There, fondly-faithful, gazes to the last ; 

Then homeward hies, home now no more, to dwell 

In reft Affection's solitary cell ; 

There to sigh forth her unregarded fears, 

And waste in widow'd loneliness her tears : — 

Yet, Spirit, thou, — whose great directive charm 

Instructs the helm, and prompts the pilot's arm, — 

Inspir'st afar, by sweet remembrance blest, 

A holy calm in her tumultuous breast ; 

And bring' st, — a seraph of celestial power, — 

Cheer to her soul in sorrow's loneliest hour : — 

Oh ! when all other charms are vainly sought, 

What saving hope yet lingers in the thought, 

[part IV.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 53 

That through the wildest storms thy faith can prove 
Fix'd as her faith, and changeless as her love. — 

But led by thee, whose spell alike possessed, 
Can calm each care that agitates the breast, 
Search swept the seas, and Enterprise unfurl' d 
His flag triumphant o'er a vanquished world. 

Thine was the safeguard could alone sustain, 
Dark Power ! that awful wanderer of the main, [13] 
Who, marked for special deed, at Heaven's behest, 
Unveil' d the wonders of the teeming West ; 
Gave a new era to the circling year, 
And to the growing globe another sphere. — 
Or that great Pilot, whose adventurous rage [14] 

Lacks but the voice of Truth's impartial page ; 
He who, a Chief of scarce less lofty fame, 
Eorestall'd the conquest, but resign'd the claim. 

Or Polo, He, the Pilgrim of the east, [] 5] 

Whose path was where bland Nature's influence ceas'd ; 
He whose far-searching spirit walk'd alone 
Stupendous realms within the burning zone ; 
And first waked thence thy majesty, and gave 
Thy guardian-genius to the western wave. — 
Illustrious Chief ! — what though no sculptured bust 
Crown with pale pomp thy ever-honour'd dust ; 
What though no wreath, the hero's cold reward, 
Or speaking stone thy daring worth record ; 
The mercy thou hast wrought is thy best meed, 
And gives a crowning greatness to thy deed; 
Hosts yet unborn shall bless thy sacred name, 
And endless time perpetuate thy fame ! — 

When, magic needle, at thy mute command, 
The enthusiast urged o'er Kobi's hungry sand 
His wilder'd way, where lifeless plains extend 
Their sameness dire, — a waste without an end ; — 



54 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Through leagues untried thy faultless influence told 
The course no mortal instinct could unfold ; 
Thy watchful friendship, thy unboastful power, 
Cheered the dark gloom, and charm' d the spectral hour !- 
Nor less assured, when strong ambition stirr'd 
Europe's proud sons to feats as yet unheard, — 
'Midst torrid storms and southern seas afar, 
Bold Gama braved the elemental war, [16] 

Where Afric's rocks their lengthening horrors shape, — 
Earned the tempest, and subdued the Cape.. — 

Yet could not all thy saving might avail, 
Where, through the tumults of the northern gale, 
With fruitless force, and ineffectual zeal, 
Eesearch still plied the Lusitanian keel ? — 

Stung with the daring energy, behold ! 
Two brother-Chiefs, illustrious names of old, [17] 
(Their fate's a secret, and their tale untold !) — 
One sought, Columbus-like, mysterious shores, 
Where the deep revels round the wild Azores y — 
He went and came not ; by the ice-tempest's breath, 
Or by some huge disaster hurl'd to death ; 
Straight a wild impulse sway'd the younger chief, 
He could not choose, it was Affection's grief ; 
He fell, a martyr to a vain belief ; — 
He went too and for ever : — How they fell, 
Through what strange pangs, let dark Destruction tell 
Tradition knows not, tongue might ne'er relate 
The woe that leaves no record of its fate ; 
Por none can speak where none was left to save, 
And wastes alone howl'd o'er the lonely grave. — 

But which is He, who thrice essay'd in vain 
To rend the shackles of the Arctic main, 
Cope with the dire north-east, where polar frost 
Yokes in eternal thrall the helpless coast ; 

[part IV.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 55 

And cleave through adamantine seas his way 

To the rich regions of remote Catkay ? — 

Thine the bold effort, Barentz ! — the renown [18] 

Endurance brings and Daring, is thine own ! — 

But thou wert doom'd : the race of death begun, 

The fearful goal how could' st thou hope to shun ? — 

Ill-destined Chief ! 'twas thy stern task to outbrave 

Zembla's deep snows, and Kara's icy wave, — 

To sink, alas ! into a lonelier grave ! 

Yes, thou wert doomed : yet not till fierce Disease 

Instinctive warn'd thee from those ruthless seas, 

To seek within thy long-deserted soil 

Friendship's warm grasp, and Home's expectant smile ; 

Then envious Death, who spared thee in that hour 

When thou wert prostrate at the tyrant's power, 

Stole on thy hopes, and subtly struck thee low, 

Thou, who hadst braved a thousand deaths of woe ! — 

There, — in the depths of Winter's solitude, 

Thy bark abandon' d, and thy strength subdued, 

While Death, dark- gathering round thy piteous crew, 

In all his polar vastness met their view, 

Urging that chance Despair had yet in store, 

To launch their fortunes to some friendlier shore ; — 

Where polar blasts their earliest furies blow 

Par on Zelania's ever-icy brow, 

Methinks I hear thy dying voice exclaim, 

While life's last throes convulse the struggling frame, 

" Lift me, oh lift me, friends, where once again 

" I may retrace in thought yon envious main ; 

" Let me yet once that fatal scene review, 

" And I will bid my earthly hopes adieu," — 

111- destined Chief ! true to thy last command, 

The sad crew ply the ever-faithful hand ; — 



56 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Thy end was near, and in congenial gloom, 

And the deep opened up an ample tomb ; 

A change by thee unfeared ; thou hadst no dread 

Of death, or life's desire, — thy hopes were dead : i 

But for the thoughts that speechless gaze expressed, 

While triple failure rankled in thy breast, — 

The harrowing thoughts, — alas ! what tongue might tell 

The piteous meaning of that mute farewell ! — 

Even such his fate, to foul distemper's grave 
Struck from his triumph o'er the Arctic wave ; 
Doom'd long, though unrepining still, to share 
The pangs of want, and horrors of despair, 
There where, developed by his skill, appears 
The ocean-pass 'twixt Earth's vast hemispheres ; 
Behring, the Dane, where lone Alaska's shore [19] 
Beats from her echoing cliffs the stormy roar 
Of that wild deep that bears his deathless name, 
Points his proud path, and flows with all his fame. — 

Such was remote Adventure's earlier tomb ; 
A death of pangs the universal doom. — 
All foil'd alike, fated and baffled all, 
The bold Batavian, and the sprightly Gaul, 
The fervid Lusian, enterprising Dane, 
And they who plied the unequal barks of Spain; [20] 
E'en the cold Buss, inured to every ill, 
With frost congenial, apathetic still ; 
Who feeds, or starves, just as the event may be, 
Drudges or sleeps, and all with equal glee ; 
He to whom Eate, considerate still, hath hurl'd 
The sceptre of the snows o'er half the world. 

Baffled alike each Eover of the day, 
Still Winter held his undivided sway ; 
Through whose mysterious gloom and icy thrall, — 
Shackling at once or intercepting all, 

[part IV.] 



AECTIC ENTEEPEISE. 57 

Stern still to imprison deep, or still exclude 
The encroaching step that soil'd his solitude, — 
Till one vast Power, the ocean-realm, arose, 
His coasts to unravel, and define his snows, — 
Discovery's daring prow ne'er pierced before ; 
Thought might not roam so far, nor Taney soar. 



58 



AECTIC ENTEEPEISE. 

PART V. 



" Incredibilis rerum fama occupat aures." 

Virgil. JEn. 



ARGUMENT. 
The superior claims of Britain as an adventurer in the Arctic 
seas. Yet the hopes of benefit to accrue from the whale-fishery 
awoke an impulse more powerful than that of Fame. The capture of 
the whale described. Notice of great British sailors who have 
figured in Northern and Northeastern Arctic discovery. Sib Hugh 

WlLLOUGHBY — HUDSON FOTHERBY — BAFFIN — FhIPPS — CoOK 

— Buchan. — Expedition of Scoeesby to Spitzbergen ; adventures 
and scenery there, described : — to Beerenburg, East Greenland, &c. 
— extinct volcanoes — polar refraction. — Review of Northwestern 
discovery. — Notices of Knight and Barlow — Baffin — Davis — 
Hudson — dreadful fate of Hudson. Notices of Frobisher — 
Waymouth — Fox — James — Parry — Franklin — Back ; adven- 
tures of that officer. Allusion to the fate of Hood, and the struggles 
of Richardson and Franklin in the North American land-expedi- 
tion, in company with Back. The expedition of Ross and dis- 
covery of the magnetic Pole ; allusion to a former expedition of 
that officer round Baffin's bay — Northwestern Greenland — Disco 
and Waygat islands : — Esquimaux, — Arctic Highlanders. Last 
expedition of Ross on the shores of Boothia ; — a full detail of his 
exploits and perils, and final rescue by the " Isabella " whale- ship ; 
— Reflections arising from such. — Conclusion. 



Confined too long to deeds of ancient age 
And alien sons, Narration's partial page ; 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE, 59 

At length all-conscious of superior claim, 
Britain steps in, and points to all her fame : 
But Britain's deeds a worthier strain require, 
And urge to loftier heights the trembling lyre ; 
Rise then, my Muse, if thou canst rise so high, 
And with thy theme exalt thy minstrelsy. 

Yet say what charm a mightier force displayed ; 
What stronger influence than mere Fame's betray' d 
Host after host, whom Enterprise alone 
Might scarce impel, 'midst icy seas unknown, 
To encounter death in his own dark domain ; — 
What mightier yet remained ? — the thirst of gain. 

Disastrous Power ! thy fury once possessed, 
Where canst thou not compel the human breast ? 

Panting for gold, in vain, insatiate man, 
Earth's teeming climes thy restless steps o'erspan ; 
In vain thy merchant-fleets invest the seas, 
And India's wealth flows in with every breeze ; — 
Unsated still, though thou canst call thine own 
The exhaustless treasures of the torrid zone ; 
Thou teachest thy presumptuous prows to probe 
Deserts of death, the limits of the globe ; 
Till Frost consigns thy zeal to seas of ice, 
And polar snows convince thy avarice. 

Lo ! 'midst a labyrinth of waves that roll 
Their huge creations round the teeming Pole, 
King of the tribes that stem that wintry main, 
The whale long held his unsuspecting reign : 
There revell'd free from Nature's earliest time, 
Shapeless and vast like his own wondrous clime ; 
There widely prey'd, himself to incur full soon 
The steely terrors of the dire harpoon. — 
No longer now, safe in unquestion'd sway, 
The important full-blown tyrant of his day, 



60 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

He crops, incumbent at his spacious ease, 

The cold luxuriance of those icy seas ; 

A mightier comes, the tyrant of the world, 

And in his side a barbed death is hurFd. — [1] 

Stung with unwonted pangs, at first on high 

He rears his threatening tail, and strikes the sky ; 

His goaded wrath in thunder shakes the shore, 

And Ocean's caves reecho to the roar : — 

But lo ! round- wreathed, prompt to secure the spoil, 

The extensive rope with many a sinuous coil 

Holds him to fate : — furious, he whirls its length, — 

For anguish wakes to prodigies of strength ; — 

The cable flies, and to dark caves of night 

Profound, he plunges with delirious might ; 

Till, urgent to renew the vital breath, 

And something yielding to the trenchant death, 

He cleaves the upward deep, and quaffs the air ; 

Oh, fatal bliss ! — the dread destroyer's there : — 

No single foe, behold ! whole squadrons join, 

And in fierce conflict armed hosts combine. — 

What boots it now with unavailing force 

To wake expiring Nature's last resource ; 

What boots in towering terror to defy 

Man, his unsparing watchful enemy. — 

Prone to the wealth his ponderous bulk bestows, 

(That nurse of life, yet source of all his woes) — [2] 

The lance prevails ; struggling, he cedes the strife ; 

Yields forth with ireful throes the indignant life, 

Reluctant yields, along the briny flood 

Transfix' d, and dyes an ocean with his blood. — 

While thus the unwearied hunter of the whale, 
Urged by the spirit of gain, expands his sail ; 
Great Science prompts her sons to loftier aims, 
As wild, yet more exalted, — such are Fame's. — 

[part v.] 



AECTIC ENTERPEISE. 61 

But now, while Fancy feeds her quickening fires, 
Marshals her thoughts, and to high deeds aspires ; 
Consideration wakes, and whispers near, 
Unwelcome, thus to her reluctant ear : — 
" And dost thou, vain Enthusiast, dost thou deem 
" Thy muse all equal to the ambitious theme ? — 
" Think' st thou to compass in a fleeting scroll 
" Whom Nature's self lacks limits to control ? — 
" Or with vain tropes, in diction's proud display, 
" To exalt those heroes to yet brighter day, 
" Whose world-wide fame reluctant homage wrings 
" From rival nations, and contending kings ?" — 

Of such Fame gave to one a timely crown ; 
Leaves yet, perchance, to live with his renown : — - 
Heaven grant but so ! — May Britain's prayers prevail 
O'er one dark doom her secret fears bewail ! 
Heaven grant her first prophetic fate might be 
Yet unfulfill'd in her lost destiny ! 
And what that first, wherein might be foreshown 
The gloomy picture of a doom unknown ? — 
Ages have pass'd, whose annals still supply, 
Each its dark page of sea-calamity ; 
Yet none of Time's strange destinies below 
Can claim the palm from this unequall'd woe. 

A Briton's was the doom, where held command [3] 
A brave chief in a bark ail-bravely mann'd ; 
And though of naval art each sage resource 
Sagacious Cabot drew, and plann'd the course ; 
It strangely chanced that, from the threatening wave 
Hastening amain his foundering bark to save, 
He met, even in the North's tumultuous surge, 
A haven where the billows ceased to urge ; 
A surer refuge from their rolling rage, 
In polar ice a firmer anchorage, 



02 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Than ever yet befell, in storm or strife, 
The wild experience of his watery life. 

Hemm'd thus, an age went by, and they were found, 
Where Lapland fishers rove their wintry round, - 
A floating tomb : — There the dead Chieftain sate, 
His hand and pen on the last dreary date, 
Even as the frost had fix'd him to his fate :— 
The crew were there, and, faithful beyond death, 
Strain' d at the task as in the act of breath; 
In posture as when first the icy spell 
Sudden on their collapsing features fell ; 
Seiz'd and congeal' d the current of their blood, 
And fix'd them in their human attitude ; — 
No record left for pity's tear to atone ; 
Soul-harrowing thought ! — all but their end unknown. 

But it might seem, when Fame's wild flights impel, 
That Enterprise works with a subtle spell, 
Of power man's natural fears to all disarm ; 
That Eate hath lures, and Death some hideous charm :- 
Eor, lo ! scarce rescued from a polar tomb, 
Hosts, all-regardless of each former doom, [4] 

At the dark counsels of an aimless dream 
Launch forth anew, and seize the unfinish'd theme. 

And many a Chief the arduous course maintain'd, 
Sequent, where Death in all his terrors reign'd : 
In the same path, beneath the very sky 
Dark with the doom of hapless Willoughby, 
Barentz and stern resolve went forth to earn 
Undying fame, but — never to return. 

Great Hudson thus, he whose exploring soul 
Eirst sought the frozen waste that bars the Pole, — 
Through those strange seas, whose icy current flows 
Erom black Spitzbergen's cliffs to Zembla's snows, 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 63 

Steer' d forth, till, by the elemental force 
O'er-awed, to other climes he shaped his course ; 
Prom other seas to educe his fame, and rear 
His greatness in another hemisphere. [5] 

But, in each favourite project doomed to feel 
The frequent pangs of disappointed zeal, 
Britain forsook with sighs that faithless main 
Where Barentz fell, and Hudson toil'd in vain. 

And what might humbler daring have availed, [6] 
Hopeless, where Potherby and Baffin failed ? — 
Phipps, though for him great Nelson first display' d 
His young unyielding spirit, shrunk dismayed ? 
And memorable Cook ail-idly plied 
The keel that ploughed through every sea beside ? — 
Where Buchan's zeal, powerless to circumvent 
The zeal of the contentious element, 
Gave to the blast his vessel's helpless form, 
And ran to ice for refuge from the storm : 
Yet she was saved, and one amidst her band, 
Whose living name now lingers with his land 
But as a thought, a trembling radiance there, 
The last faint gleam 'midst darkness and despair. 

Where he who tempted the Pole's iciest gale, [7] 
Schooled in the north, the comrade of the whale ; 
The experienced pilot, self-collected chief, 
Sagacious Scoresby held the vain belief, 
Barks might be mann'd with energy to probe 
Within the frost-bound axis of the globe : — 
Thuswise impressed, he taught his helm to shape 
The course that led him where a dreary cape 
Par in Spitzbergen's midmost isle arose, 
Naked, and nursed in Winter's lap of snows ; 
Surmounting this, he threw his wondering glance 
Wide o'er a lonely desolate expanse, 



64 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Stretching beyond the scope of human ken, 

Lifeless, that interdicts the steps of men ; — 

Here, while the bay showed how the shore was won, — 

Its floating glaciers glistening in the sun, 

Impassive of his beams, — there, vales extend, a 

But of no verdure, to an unknown end ; 

Beyond the reach of thought, one boundless frost, 

'Midst crags on crags illimitably lost ; 

A range of death, that sudden seem'd to emerge, 

As calTd by powerful magic from the surge, 

Whose idle depths, in slumbering strength serene, 

Contrast the grandeur of the spectral scene. 

But, as Ambition, pinnacled in power, 
Recks not of ill in pride's triumphant hour ; — 
Unmoved, in philosophic thought awhile 
He ponder' d on the peak of that lone isle : — 
Turning at length, strange fates pursued his feet, [8] 
The threatening terrors of the steep retreat ; 
For lo ! by polar frost's earth-piercing force 
Rocks from their roots uptorn, in ceaseless course, 
With perilous speed now swept the ascent, and now 
Bounded impetuous to the abyss below. 

Hurl'd thus with wild mischance, he gain'd the strand 
All- welcome, and rejoin' d his anxious band : 
But if death's stillness mark'd the distant height, 
That strand beneath was living to the sight ; [9] 
Fowls of unnumber'd tribes, in swift alarm 
Waked from their nestling haunts, a winged swarm, 
With threatening beak, and moving gesture strove 
To scare him from the procreant bed, and clove 
The sky, intent in anxious zeal to roam, 
And guard with screams their violated home. 

This was the same stern resolute who steer'd [] 0] 
Where Beerenberg his stately cone uprear'd, 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 65 

Looking o'er ice, eternal at his side, 

Six thousand feet upon the vassal-tide. 

Here with his fortunes cast on this rude isle, 

Quick Science urged him to unearth the soil, 

Where from its base tower' d forth, through snows sublime, 

The impervious peak, a monument of Time ; — 

When, strange to tell, loud caverns from beneath [11] 

Strike like the hollow sepulchres of death ; 

Volcanic tombs, whose sounding depths declare 

The range of wrathful fires exhausted there. 

But, from the Pole repulsed, lo ! yet again, — [12] 
Though swept by surges of a furious main, 
Scourged by the frost, and in the storm's distress, 
Afar where Greenland's eastern wilderness 
Breaks from the wave abrupt ; — full time had he, 
Though hemm'd in ice, all-unconcern' d and free, 
To read with wrapt Attention's watchful eye 
The aerial mirage of the polar sky : — 
There, monstrous forms, thrown from the shapeless ice, 
Look'd down, Eefraction's wondrous artifice ; 
And while huge bears with lions, side by side, 
In all life's wonted postures stood descried ; 
As Fancy work'd her fond creations there, 
And shaped her baseless fabrics in the air, 
Ships, from their native element apart, 
Rose in the void, and mock'd the toils of art ; 
While wintry piles, aloft in air uprear'd, 
Changed into works of human skill appear'd ; 
Cities in air, bright spires, and stately trees ; 
The pictured semblance of those icy seas. 

Such scenes by nature's secret genius wrought, 
Skill' d well to charm the ocean-wanderer's thought, 
Would win the observant Scoresby, and prevail 
O'er the uninspiring capture of the whale ; 

E 



66 .ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

But dull inglorious schemes perplexed his soul, [13] 
Confined his spirit, and forbade the Pole. 

If then Renown such failure still proclaims 
Link'd to the achievements of her mightiest jiaxnes ; 
And tost by tempests, or in ice immured, 
Each strenuous chief a fateful course endured ; — 
Pause we ! — nor rashly let Detraction deem 
Hudson unequal to the amazing scheme ; 
He but transferr'd his zeal to fiercer skies, 
And waked his soul to wilder enterprise ; 
To yield in unknown pangs his latest breath, 
And die mid savage snows an outcast's death. — 

And now while Thought pervades, with awe-struck soul, 
Climes where the mystic Genius of the Pole 
Maintains through meteor- skies a vast survey 
O'er the wide sphere of his northwestern sway ; 
Seems to her eye to pass, in great review, 
A train of Chiefs whom death might not subdue ; 
Chiefs to whom Time his latest voice shall yield, 
The immortal warriors of that wintry field, 
Where still each rock reveals some hero's name, 
And unremovably defends his fame. 

But in what numbers shall the Muse relate 
The darksome horrors of those realms of fate, 
"Where venturous hosts, — through every howling blast 
Wakes a wild warning from the fearful past, — 
Demand of unrelenting seas and skies, 
On homeless shores, the grave of Enterprise. 

Yet stamp'd too sure on fell Disaster's page, 
Those piteous victims of the polar rage, 
Whose bones lay scatter'd o'er a lonely isle, 
Sport of each storm, the waste's unburied spoil, — 
Can Record fail in her sad verse to blend 
Knight's lingering fate, with Barlow's lonely end ? [14] 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 67 

Must Baffin, deem'd unworthy of her strain, 

In dust, unhonour'd by tbe Muse, remain ? 

Or shall oblivious Time forget to tell 

How Davis struggled, and how Hudson fell ? — 

Ah, no ! — while rolls the ocean of the north 

To Atlantic depths his icy tribute forth, 

In their own seas their greatness shall abide, 

While Pity trembling tells how Hudson died. — 

Ill-fated chief ! e'en now I seem to hear 

The vain behowlings of thy dreadful prayer ; 

I seem to see thy wan and withered form 

Holding dread converse with the unheeding storm ; 

Cast by the hand of causeless Mutiny 

On Famine's shores, unpitied there to die 

In wastes without a grave, exposed and bare 

To the rude buffets of the piercing air ; 

Thrust forth unfriended, helpless, and alone, 

No tear, no sigh, to answer to thine own ; 

And to that couch of death so cold and low 

Hears' d by the storm, and coffin' d in the snow. 

Heart-rending doom ! — yet watchful Heaven decreed 
Fit retribution for the hateful deed ; 
A hideous fate that rebel-crew befell, 
Earned, as the wages of their fierceness, well ; 
And, as their leader met no common doom, 
No common pangs pursued them to the tomb. 

But for that leader's fame, his great career 
Waked to like fame full many a brave compeer ; 
And in that vague and chartless ocean, where 
Zeal still impell'd thrice-baffled Frobisher, — 
Baffled till, summon' d to a British main, 
To curb the encroaching insolence of Spain, 
He bore on polar fame's auspicious breeze 
His conquering greatness to his native seas ; — [15] 



68 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Where Weymouth crossed that fearful hurricane 

That took into the skies the uplifted main, 

And, of his fairest hopes at once despoil' d, 

Keturn'd to tell how vainly he had toil'dj; — 

Where 'Fox, dismayed, shrunk from Adventure's field ; 

And frost compelled long-suffering James to yield ; — 

In that still- secret sphere, where Davis sought 

The bold renown by Baffin's genius wrought, — 

Parry achieved an everlasting name ; 

While darkness broods o'er Franklin's awful fame. 

Steadfast in soul, and of that patient will 
'Midst seas or shores of ice ascendant still, 
The amphibious Back pursued his huge career [16] 
Of wonder, and achieved his triumphs here. 
Closed in on every side by gaping death, 
The incumbent iceberg, and the floods beneath, 
Even as the firm-set rock the surge awaits, 
He stood unchanged before the threatening fates ; 
There as he view'd each ponderous ruin hurl'd, 
Engines of death to strike him from the world, 
They fail'd to awake his terrors, or control 
His course, and turn him from the all- wish' d-for goal ; — 
Swift in decision, his bold thought contriv'd 
The dreadful rescue, or the shock outhVd ; 
Look'd calmly on while death involved the scene, 
Where, but for one wild moment, he had been ; 
Or strangely brave, his trembling bark upbore 
On the ice-breakers of the impervious shore. — 
But whence his armour, to outlive the shock, 
And brave with changeless brow the impending rock ? — 
The majesty of mind that inly reigns, 
Great in endurance, where no hope remains ; 
That strength of soul which scorns destruction's power, 
And waits, unmoved, the issue of the hour. 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. by 

With him erewhile allied, one hapless one, 
Whom with his comrades fortune left undone, 
Within the shores of such repulsive seas 
Sinking by daily famine's slow degrees, 
Was sudden struck to death, and bleeding fell 
(A savage murderer's curse his dreadful knell), 
A victim, from all aid save Heaven's retired, 
Yet Heaven was at his side when Hood expired. [17] 

Here too, companion of his faltering strength, 
Throughout the same wild desert's dreary length, 
True Richardson, a name to fear unknown, [18] 

Gain'd from his wondrous walk a dread renown ; 
That wondrous walk of woe, where kindred claim 
Links him to Franklin, and terrific fame. 

But here, by dint of native hardihood, 
The persevering Ross his fame pursued ; [19] 

Hither impell'd with all the magnet's force, 
To trace that subtle wonder to its source. 
Noble research ! — but, in this boon secure, 
Wilds yet unsought his wandering steps allure ; 
Ranges till then left with their snows alone, 
Pass'd by and shunn'd ; wide trackless wastes unknown ; 
Realms by Discovery's reaching steps untrod, 
Or walk'd unseen save by the eye of God : — 
Sad shores from which the gaze of wandering thought 
Returns unbless'd, with the wild fancy fraught, 
That in the night, that night without a morn, 
That wintry night from which no day is born, — 
There, all-remote from nature's sympathies, 
Strange shades of ill howl out their hopeless cries, 
Forbid to unveil their terrors, or betray 
Their ghastly shapes to unpermitted day. 

'Twas on such shores, — whose wintry wilds expand, 
Lost, lifeless, void, like some forsaken land 
Cast forth unfinished from creation's hand, — 



70 AECTIC ENTEEPEISE, 

'Twas amid such, urged by adventurous pride, 

With earth-controlling Science for his guide, 

For her he watch' d the Heavens, and probed the soil, 

Threaded each shore, and glean' d one priceless spoil : — 

He was his own strange exile, and 'twas much 

To leave fair Albion's genial clime for such ; 

But lo ! where hardiest nature through the strife 

Of storm lives but by struggling for the life, 

Ear from the shelter of her humblest home, 

It was his choice, or fate perchance, to roam ; 

Till, famish' d from the shore, he sought again 

A strange yet less inhospitable main. 

But he had cleft those seas before, and been, [20] 
Where Greenland, with a fix'd unalter'd mien, 
Strikes like a phantom through the misty scene ; 
Had traced those waves where Disco's peaks arise 
In high-ascending glaciers to the skies ; 
And onward still, where fleeting summers smile 
On the cold brow of Waygat's ice-girt isle ; 
The same dark wintry round had wander'd o'er, 
Where bold research with Baffin steer' d of yore ; 
Even to those shores, Adventure's utmost bound, [21] 
Where, wrapt in ever-brooding mist profound, 
Deserts unnamed, that eye hath never scann'd, 
Lost in the gloom, then lifeless depths expand. 

When vague ambition or of quest, or fame, 
Or some strange impulse in effect the same, 
Had urged this gifted rover to repair, 
In former flights of wild adventure, there, — 
Such had he gain'd ; and as he grasp'd the scene, 
And pausing, mused with curious thought between ; 
New marvels, lo ! in human guise array' d, 
Aping that guise, his wondering glance invade ; 

[paet v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 71 

Girt with the mimicry of sword and lance, 

Hostile at first, strange pigmy forms advance, 

Till mutual-friendly tendency impedes 

Suspicion's growth, and mutual faith succeeds ; — 

Yet, swa/d by influence of some secret fear, — 

As this strange-seen Kabloona-Chief drew near, 

Stretching the proffered hand, — they shunn'd the touch, 

Deem'd him of other worlds, and fear'd as such : 

This doubt dispelled, and amity renew'd, 

An uncouth scene of savage joy ensued ; 

Hurled hastily aside the spear and knife, 

Loud glee succeeds to silent threats of strife ; 

Sudden from various haunt, on either hand, 

Wild tribes emerge to meet the "White-man's band ; 

While dogs, a sturdy phalanx, from behind, 

With earnest looks and suasive gestures join'd 

The advance, till all, a strange tumultuous rout, 

Pour forth their throats, and mingle in the shout. 

This done, they accost in signs the stranger-crew, 

And now the stately vessel they review, 

Believed some huge and sky-born bird, that brings 

The wondrous White-man on his mighty wings. 

Thus oft-reneVd, with welcome quaint and strange 
They greet the invader of their snowy range ; 
While still the long-fix' d silent gaze of awe 
Bespoke their wondering sense of all they saw. 

At length our chief, all-anxious to expand 
His great sea-search that may not seek the land, 
With many a yearning- wishful thought consign'd 
To Heaven these abject sons of human-kind, — 
And looks that left them to the Unseen Care, 
To stem the gloom, and breathe the bitter air 
Of vast unsociable deserts, where 
Great Nature feeds them still, and finds their fare ; — 



72 AECTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Nature who, watchful, in her various plan, 
To endear and fit the climate to the man, — 
Assigning to the " Arctic Highlander " 
The adapted power, and instinct true to tier, 
Hears from her frozen lap, in loneliest woe, 
This utmost child, — the Savage of the snow. 

Pondering on all, he turned him from the steep, 
And sought again the far-conducting deep; 
There was his natural range, his art's command ; 
Tor, though he walked with Science on the land, 
He own'd the deep, and on its moving plain 
His natural sphere of action found again : 
Yet was he no vain recreant, at his ease 
Amid the halcyon calms of summer seas ; 
Reputed bold, Experience spoke his worth, [22] 
And Navigation own'd him in the north. 

And now we trace him through the waves again, [23] 
Till, locked by frost within the polar main, 
Round him in vain portentous skies conspire 
With wastes in Arctic winter's grim attire ; 
Famine and all the assembled Pates combine 
In vain to shake him from his great design. 
In terrors trained, nursed in adventurous deed, 
No fears appal him, and no toils impede ; 
He thinks what feats shall follow from his schemes, 
What great reality confirm his dreams ; 
And bravely thinks in what wild way the thought 
Might be achieved, the arduous course outwrought ; 
Shapes the projected search, with zeal anew, 
Breath' d from himself, inspires his drooping crew, 
And prompts them by his own example's force 
To anticipate with hope the wish'd-for course ; 
Nor halts he here, but, in that hope's delay, 
Wears in contriving thought the sullen day, 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 73 

And frequent throws his wistful glances o'er 
The unpierced snows of Boothia's voiceless shore. 

But now each new-born energy awakes 
That from fresh arduous ill fresh action takes ; 
And though a novice in that wintry art, 
Wherein experienced patience might impart 
Schemes best-devised to mitigate his doom, 
Urge the dull hour, and cheer the listless gloom, — 
As forecast shapes his coming destinies, 
Sagacity each quick resource supplies : 
Lives in his soul the instinct that presides, 
Endears his crew, encourages, and guides ; 
And, here within an icy prison bound, 
Beguiles by Becreation's busy round 
Diurnal, and Instruction's various lore, 
(The task afloat, the exciting quest ashore), 
Their languor, till, each day of labour past, 
He yields the high-sanction' d day of rest at last ; 
Lifts them to brighter worlds, and strives to engage 
Their thoughts in holy Truth's immortal page : 
But with their zeal his fervour he combines, 
And shares the discipline his rule enjoins ; 
Schools from himself, bids his example preach, 
And practises the creed his doctrines teach. 

Thus, four long years of wintry solitude, 
The infuriate north enduring Eoss withstood ; 
Yet, call'd by Science from his floating home, 
Or urg'd by importuning want to roam, 
For many a lingering night, and irksome day, 
Midst the rude terrors of the obstructed bay, 
He traced through seas of ice his tedious way ; 
Eked out the shore beneath the incumbent floe, 
And sought his nightly slumber in the snow ; 
Renew' d each search, yet came, with each return, 
Untutor'd still in what he wish'd to learn, 



74 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

The bearings of that mystic channel where 
His daring prow might pass, if snch there were. 

Thus did he lengthen out his darksome date, 
Till, seeking vainly still to extricate 
His long-embarrass' d bark, Kesolve arose, 
To change his lot, perchance, for wilder woes. 
'Twas a fierce thought that waked such fierce resolve, 
Whose acting might a fiercer fate involve, 
Yet 'twas resolved ; immoveably beset 
That bark, the dire emergency was met : — 
They duly fitted and well stored each boat, 
(As well as may be with their means remote), 
Then left her, yet returned once more to grieve, 
Yet, sailor-like, they took a cheering leave ; [24] 
Nail'd the famed colours to her mast, and gave 
Her helpless strength to an inglorious grave. 

This done, swift as enfeebled limbs might urge, 
They stemmed the terrors of the frozen surge ; 
Haul'd up on shore, or what seem'd shore to be, 
Where all was one with the all-changeless sea ; 
Thence through that force, despair's awaken' d power, 
They work'd for many a long and lonely hour 
The irksome sledge, sole vehicle of all 
Instinct had saved, a priceless hoard though small ; 
But Heaven befriended, and they calmly knew 
The Heaven that tries sustains His creatures through : 
This was no vain reliance, and they found 
Most succour there when most their fortunes frown'd. 
Girt with this Heaven-dependant faith, they traced 
A strand, with this sole guidance through the waste, 
A strand whose shores a plenteous spoil unrol ; 
Not vainly did they reach this welcome goal. 
Though helpful now, this was the same sad strand 
Where wreck had been, even by a chief's command ; [25] 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 75 

The same where that great Leader, who propelFd 
His prow the furthest through the icy field, 
Despairing hence his shattered bark to save 
From a wild ocean's all-insatiate grave, 
Consigned her to the deep, whose savage wrath 
Swept her, but strewed her treasure on its path.— 

Quite outcasts now, with the mere life adrift, 
(That Nature's saddest yet most cherished gift), 
They ponder' d well what scheme they might devise 
To save that life from the relentless skies ; 
Nor ponder' d long, such rovers are adroit ; 
They raised a dwelling, 'twas no mean exploit : [26] 
The sides of canvass, and the roof the same, 
Strain' d with extended cordage, form'd its frame; 
Little lack'd they beyond, for, with these two, 
Canvass and cord, what will not sailors do ? 
But casual drift, to save them from despair, 
The fragment of the " Fury's" wreck was there ; 
And as it chanc'd, such as avail' d them most, 
As by design, lay scatter' d on that coast. 

Housed thus, they found full leisure now to shape 
The purpose of their next and last escape : 
But how ? — what hope to mortals thus bereft, 
What scheme, what manner of escape was left ? 
Even such a scheme as might be mutely plann'd 
In extreme danger by a desperate band ; 
And boats they had to await, as it might be, 
The chance of time, and changes of the sea. 

Launch' d forth anew, a rude tumultuous mass 
Of gathering ice forbade their prows to pass ; 
When, changed the helm, their alter' d course but bore 
To the steep terrors of a threatening shore : 
Now on this side, and now on that they range, 
As with the shifting winds their prospects change ; 



76 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Till, gain'd the expected sea, one rigid strait, 
Cold as their hopes, and stubborn as their fate, 
Belentlessly consigned their failing strength 
To a fourth winter's melancholy length. 

Shut from this latest prospect of release, 
That fed their hopes, and gave their spirits peace ; 
Nought now remained but to retrace their course, 
And glean subsistence, as a last resource, 
From that sad harvest they had sought before, 
Thrown from the sea, and scattered on the shore, — 
A boon, Heaven-sent perchance, to compensate 
Parry's disaster, and the Fury's fate. 

Swift as the thought that urged, the bark was steer' d, 
When, to the guiding instinct true, appear' d 
A sea whose bay unsheltered seem'd the most, 
Within an inlet yet of whose wild coast, 
The frost relented a brief space to save 
. Their prows, unequal to that wintry wave. 

Beyond the highest footsteps of the tide 
Each bark safe-moor' d, they gather to decide 
Their final purpose ; there could be but one 
Midst fates that men unanimously shun. 

Food they had stored, a scanty competence 
Just for the life ; but was there life from hence 
To urge, sledge-drawn, amid the sweeping drift, 
This well-saved hoard of not untimely thrift ? — 
Had tbey the vigour, wasted as they were 
By want, disease, long suffering, and despair ? — 

This Fury, she the ill though aptly named, 
Yet of ill omen, though her deeds were famed ; 
With living zeal late thronging round her deck, 
Adventure's boast, — She had been doom'd a wreck; 
She had been doom'd by her united band, 
And cast, abandoned, on a nameless strand; 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 77 

Condemned, alas ! inglorious fate ! to lie, 
The victim of remote necessity, 
With all the wonders of her oaken strength, 
Wallowing and writhing in each billow's length : 
O'er her the waves and winds, with wanton toil, 
Wrought all their furies, but threw back the spoil ; 
And year by year her fabric pass'd away 
Throughout the deep, her spoil within the bay, 
Where now this band of patient wretches sought 
Their food, and lived but in the hopeful thought. 
But though persistent zeal possess'd that crew, 
And each was calm in hope, and all were true ; 
Though each was still the encourager of each, 
Far from their feet lay yet this precious beach ; 
Too far, methinks, mid such a host of ill, 
For such to attain, whatever their force of will : — 
For men brought down to gaunt starvation's verge, 
'Twere hard such ponderous toil such lengths to urge ; 
Yet need it was, as the last artifice 
Of famishing nature ; for the surging ice,-— 
Though the tide favoured, and the wind was fair, — 
Forbade all further watery access there. 

Mutely they braved the toil, yet oft again 
Turn'd them ail-vainly- wishful to the main, 
If to descry some kindly-opening lane 
Pierce the dissever' d mass of ice, and yield 
Promise of transit through that stubborn field ; 
For such oft-wakening Hope might vainly ask, 
And so they plied their melancholy task. 
The track was rude o'er many a shapeless mile, 
With nought their fainting spirits to beguile ; 
Yet from the straining of each anxious frame, 
The concert of each struggle wildly came, 



78 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Even from the efforts of their feebleness, 
A power to stead them in their deep distress, 
Though leagues of white-strown desert still deny 
The haven of their wintry destiny. — 

Arrived at length, and in their lonely tent 
Coop'd close, athwart that dreary continent 
They eyed, forlorn, the daily- deepening snow, 
And heard the blast along the desert blow ; 
And sorely felt that slender tent might yield 
But little refuge from the wintry field : 
Yet through the scheming instincts of distress, 
The very snows that swept the wilderness — 
Even as the seas cast with unconscious haste 
The banks that bar them from a wider waste, — 
"Wrought of themselves a refuge, while the wind 
Eor vantage closed the drifting storm behind. 

Skreen'd thus by winter from the winter's rage, 
They rested from their weary pilgrimage ; 
When, dire discovery ! the precious store, 
That from the Fury's wreck had reach'd the shore, 
Untimely chance ! swept by the ruthless tide, 
Its fulness now, when need was most, denied ; 
Storms too forbade their pastimes, till at last, 
All joy with long-enduring patience past, 
The gathering symptoms of that dire disease, [27] 
The scourge of lives left wretched on the seas, 
Appall' d the chieftain and his comrades, who, 
As one life went, each deemed his own was due. 

Yet all-providing Heaven new hope instils 
Even in the midst of all these gathering ills ; 
And while throughout meek Eesignation reigns, 
Unshaken trust in God each soul sustains. 

With this bland influence planted in the breast ; 
Brave yet resigned, unshrinking though distressed ; 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 79 

They watch' d with anxious eye that rigid main, 
Till they might see its aspect change again, 
Their pinnace launch, and let the piteous sail 
Bare its expanding bosom to the gale : — 
As such were seemly hopes, approved of Heaven, 
They found to such a due fulfilment given ; 
Such hoped-for ends calm patience brings, in spite 
Of thickening evil, to the lowliest plight. 

But from each hope matured fresh hopes arise, 
As stars succeed on stars, and fill the skies i 
And as those stars shine from the wintry air 
Brightest, so hope shines brightest from despair. 

Eestored at length each enervated frame, 
With a new race of hopes new efforts came : 
They join their counsels, clear the obstructive ice, 
"Where paths the readiest to the waves entice ; 
My from their fortunes on that homeless realm, 
And tempt once more the fortunes of the helm ; 
Yielding that spot with all its anguish past 
To the white desert, and the howling blast. — 

Now day by day they labour'd on the deep, 
Yielding to each hard day the hours of sleep; 
But adverse winds their struggling craft detain, 
Till want returns with all her hateful train : 
Five days on Expectation's fruitless fare 
They fed, and battled with this fresh despair ; 
The sixth, a small speck, magnified by hope, 
Assured too through the expectant telescope, 
Uprose, and grew into a goodly bark, 
As it approached, and day broke through the dark. 
At length the electric sound, " a sail" — " a sail !" 
Boused up the slumbering crew with welcome hail ; 
Confusion strange woke with them, a wild joy, 
Mingled with fear, that ever-prompt alloy; 



80 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Then was a scene such as to none might be, 

Save such as languish, and on such a sea; 

And long and loud that cry of joy was heard, 

Though veering breezes kept their hopes deferred : 

At length a steadier power propelled the gale, 

And the bark passed beneath a crowded sail ; 

But in her wake another hove in view, 

To tantalize their souls with hopes anew ; 

This too had left them desolate, for lo ! 

Eull on her course the favouring breezes blow ; 

But while with all her sail this bark up-bore, 

A calm came, as from Heaven, and urged the oar : — 

They roVd amain, each icy hindrance clear' d, 

Till the mute signals of their woe appeared, 

Beseeching from the deep the stranger's aid ; 

And not in vain those signals were displayed. 

The bark hove to, a boat was lower' d, they met : 

Inquiry waked inquiry, for as yet 

Each knew not of the other ; but the word 

Of want from their worn looks was deeply heard. 

Past each restraint and newness of surprise, 
That quell such greetings to a mute surmise ; 
The Stranger thus : — " I am from British land ; [28] 
" My bark a whaler, late in the command 
" Of a long-lost and much-lamented Chief, 
" For whom my instructions are to bear relief, 
" If yet he lives, yet not to you the less, 
" If such be, as it seems, your deep distress." 

Reply was needless, volumes could not teach 
More than this short yet heart-consoling speech ; 
And so, if but to unravel the disguise 
That still hung o'er their names and destinies, — 
Eeply was none, save such as briefly bless ; 
Nor hint of aid, nor utterance of distress. 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. C 

Such pathos lived awhile ; but when it pass'd, — 
Even as the full-charged tempest falls at last, — 
In one wild burst, one full congenial flow 
Of mingling pity, wonder, joy, and woe, 
Their feelings fell ; while thus the chief replied 
In terms Emotion might no longer hide : 

" Not less to us, thou say'st, if such our grief 
" As it appears, than to that long-lost Chief, 
" Deliverance comes, as if I even were 
1 ' That hapless same, — I, whom thou rescuest here ; — 
" Even such I am, 'tis scarce less strange than true, — 
" Behold the piteous aspect of my crew \" — 

The Stranger thus of our lost Chief assured, 
That there he stood through all his ills endured, — 
Joy rent the air : by many a ready hand 
The ropes were mounted, and the yards were manned • 
And those ice-rocks re-echo' d such a roar 
As ne'er that distant ocean heard before. 

Arrived on board, a fond confusion rose; 
Eor there were many to redress their woes, 
And feed those piteous guests, and fit them for repose. 
Woke too that war of question and reply, — 
The peaceful strife of mutual sympathy, — 
Such as such friends, long-sever' d by the rage 
Of seas and storms, in generous conflict wage. 

At length each care with each overwearied breast, 
Each anxious doubt, and dread suspense at rest ; 
Lapp'd in their floating couch, its varied world 
True to the eye, the plastic dream unfurl'd. 
Lo ! now each late-predominant mischance 
Holds them fast-fetter' d in the cruel trance ; — 
"lis not enough existent ills to mourn, 
They haunt the slumbers, and in dreams return : — 

G 



82 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Again they rove, by wayward thought begun" d, 
Stem the rude floe, and pace the cheerless wild ; 
Sleep sends them back, the waste restores its grief, 
And Tate still shuts them from the sure relief. 

But brief this anguish ; fickle as the gale 
Quick Taney veers, and brighter skies prevail : 
Rescue again displays her sail, and hark ! 
The shout of triumph from the Stranger's bark ; 
The impatient question, and the glad reply, 
And tumult of that sea-festivity, 
With all those thousand nameless joys that rise 
Midst Welcome's unexpected ecstasies, 
Reacted now, — though such as ye might deem 
The crude creations of the shaping dream, — 
Were yet events, and followed as they seem, — 

To such strange shores unresting Search betrays 
His venturous prow, and such the price he pays ; 
Science from such metes out her doubtful spoil, 
And such the men that mingle for the toil. 

Peace-wearied men, who, slumbering on a name, 
Waken at length to feed a nobler flame ; 
Who, trained to deeds of hardihood and strife, 
Love, like their element, a boisterous life : 
But having fought their fight, and stemmed their storm, 
Still Phantom-Fame (unalter'd save in form, 
The Enchantress still as when her glittering car 
Bore them triumphant from the ranks of war), 
Cloth' d in new glory, with resistless beams 
Haunts their seclusion, and invades their dreams. 

They have served well their country's cause, have striven 
To uphold her strength by blood profusely given ; 
Have saved her traffic from War's wanton sweep, 
And lived but as her champions on the deep ; — 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 83 

They have been such ; 'tis told in many a scar : 
But peace that grows from long convincing war, 
Sinks to a settled calm, whose joys serene 
Pall on the soul that loves the battle-scene : 
Yet, schooled from youth in strife's exciting toil, 
The restless spirit droops but for awhile ; 
The war-field closed, new-opening fields arise, 
New passions kindle, and new deeds surprise ; 
And they who risk'd the energies of youth, 
On hostile floods, before the cannon's mouth, — 
Their occupation gone, their hopes destroyed, 
Their fame a burden, and their age a void, — 
They, — not to waste life's yet-remaining lease 
In the soft lap of an inglorious peace, — 
My to the flag, that spell of powerful sway, 
The ruling passion of their earlier day ; 
Yet waken' d in wild Hope's adventurous mood, 
Scorn the dull track of ocean long-subdued, 
Taught by a new ambition to contemn 
Its yielding billows as no path for them. 

In Ocean's torrid depths dark fates abound, 
But darker far his polar paths surround ; 
Pates manifold, wild risks ; the risk to please, 
Or punish restive crews, not least of these : — 
'Tis here the chief holds o'er a powerful band 
A spell of dread, a dangerous command. 
But he, — though sent from boyhood to the deep, 
Prom fond maternal tenderness to keep 
Control o'er crews, and issue laws to each, 
Almost as soon as Nature gives him speech, — 
Himself to Eigour's peremptory rule 
Inured, a pupil of no partial school, 
He loves the ship's stern discipline, and comes 
To affect its yoke, even as a child his home's ; — 



84 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



And should his fate, through skies of polar wrath, 

Urge him to trace Adventure's lonely path, 

Walk seas of arduous ice, or ply the helm 

Through straits that bar earth's utmost- wintry realm,— 

Not of that recreant instinct that inclines 

To evade the rigour his command enjoins, 

The Chief, yet cheerful comrade, he beguiles 

The tedious hour by sharing in its toils, 

Deeming it with his crew the wisest way 

By his example to enforce his sway. — 

Prom such he sees his country's greatness grown, 

And on that country's greatness builds his own : 

What though for her Traffic unships his stores, 

Cull'd from the travers'd globe's remotest shores ; 

Though distant monarchs to her call attend, 

Curb their vast views, and at her bidding bend ; 

Though o'er each sphere her conquering banners wave, 

Her armaments a hundred oceans lave ; — 

5 Tis not enough : — while seas unquell'd proclaim 

New fields, and fresh incentives to his fame ; 

Where'er Earth's round, or Ocean's wide expanse 

Tempts him to steer, his fearless prows advance : — 

Arm'd, in the conflict or of flood or field, 

With native energy untaught to yield; 

He leaves a home with all its sacred ties, 

A British home with all its sympathies ; 

To waste in fruitless toils his honour' d breath, 

And vainly struggle with disastrous death. — 

" Britain," he cries, " my great, my favour'd home ! 
" Thou, sovereign deem'd, where'er the billows roam ! 
" 111 art thou styled the Mistress of the seas ; 
" Thy flags all-idly-boastful flout the breeze : 
* With this great deed of enterprise undone, 
"• b'till set at naught the trophies thou hast won ; 

[part v.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 85 

" For while thine ocean-triumphs lack this crown, 
" Yain are thy vaunts, unfinished thy renown \" — 

And shall a mean philosophy prevail 
O'er deeds that nobly dare, and greatly fail ? 
Or lives that recreant spirit would instil 
The scrupulous fears of his own abject will ? 
Inspire dark doubts, and to a cold control 
Confine the noblest impulse of the soul ? — » 
Is there would curb his country's enterprise, 
That source whence all her mightiest deeds arise ? 
Would cramp her native energies, and tame 
To mercenary flights her towering fame ? 
Quell her high hopes, and bid to glow no more 
The patriot's ardour, and the poetf s lore ? — 

Great with such thoughts, and in such visions blest, 
Britannia's genius animates his breast : — 
" Yet," — he exclaims, as with returning glance 
He looks back from his course of stormy chance 
On that proud shore where all his hopes incline, — 
" This conquest yet, my country, shall be thine !" 



86 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

PART VI. 



" His name was added to the glorious roll 
Of those who search the storm- surrounded Pole.' 

Byron 



ARGUMENT. 

The desolate aspect of Polar scenery ; possesses yet a charm for 
British hardihood and adventure. Espedition of Parry for Northwest- 
ern discovery. — Intercourse with the Exquimaux ; their manners and 
peculiarities, described — Free exchange of sentiment, and the benefits 
thereof. — Breaking up of winter. Allusion to the great land-expedi- 
tion of Franklin undertaken simultaneously with that through the 
polar seas by the former officer. — Love of fame the great inciting 
cause of such dreadful adventures. Apostrophe to Fame, as the 
power that stimulates to all great achievements. This influence 
viewed as actuating the Warrior, the Statesman, the Poet, the Anti- 
quarian, the scientific Traveller ; Pictures of each : — But, most espe- 
cially, the Discoverer of unknown seas and regions. — Episode on the 
daring ice-expedition of Parry towards the Pole. Detailed descrip- 
tion of the plans of that officer, and the movements and habits of his 
crew in this memorable enterprise. 



Borne on wild winds o'er life-deserted strands, 
Her lonely-devious flight the Muse expands ; 

[part VI.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 87 

For her no more the Aonian fountains play, 
And the green haunt is many a moon away : 
Joyless inhuman scenes 'tis hers to scan, 
Ungenial worlds, new to the steps of man ; 
"Where, midst portentuous fires that nightly rise, 
Disclosing ghastly deserts to the skies, 
Fierce from the Pole infuriate Frost prevails ; 
While Death o'er his own sphere triumphant sails, 
In funeral -clouds above, and spreads below, 
His spectral robe, a winding-sheet of snow. 

Strange climes : — yet here, by bold Ambition led, 
Cradled in storms, and on the ocean bred, 
Deaf to disaster's warning voice, and wild 
As thy own seas, Adventure's reckless child, — 
Thou com'st, proud Briton, with thy searching sail, 
To cull fresh fates for Record's tragic tale. — 
Yet Hope can lend her all-enlivening ray, 
To charm each dark foreboding fast away ; 
Can tempt thee from life's cherish'd scenes to part, 
And leave thy home where thou must leave thy heart : 
E'en now where icebergs rear their wintry piles, 
From Greenland's cliffs to Georgia's utmost isles, [1] 
There her bright orb its suasive lusture pours 
To light thee to Akkoolee's dreary shores ; — 
There as thy bark ekes out her arduous way, 
"Where thickening hummocks crowd the impervious bay ; 
Or scours the shore of some untravers'd realm, 
Strength in her shrouds, and wisdom at her helm ; 
Rude o'er thy course the impatient billows roll, 
Yet Perseverance points thee to the Pole ; 
Fell Winter from his cloud-careering car 
Sweeps round thy path the snow-storm fast and far ; — 
Yet Fame can there thy darkest thoughts beguile, 
Chase every care, and cherish every smile : — 



88 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

But when unwonted furies wake the deep, 

And the bark trembles in the billowy sweep ; 

When polar blasts their every howl impart, 

And the loud storm is dreadful at thy heart ; 

Shades of high souls that danger never knew, 

In bright idea, start forth to thy view : — 

And lo, thy Chief ! the Euler of the deck, 

Where throng thy comrades at his well-known beck ; 

Now furl the canvass at his stern command, 

Or ply the rope with ever-ceaseless hand ; — 

His greatness kindles all thy native fire, 

His valour arms thee, and his hopes inspire. 

On then, — still on ! where winds or waves entice, 
Midst whirling waters, and the crush of ice, 
The floe round- wheeling with its yesty yell, 
And the high iceberg's spiry pinnacle ; — 
And lo ; — when Winter wakes his fiercest breeze, 
And Frost in many a fathom chains the seas ; 
Quells all the north to one unbroken spell, 
And warns thee, seaman, to thine inmost cell ; — 
Then on Instruction's wing the hour shall fly, 
While home-fed Taney lingers pensive by. 

Lo ! now, to fill the ever-empty hour, 
Thine energetic Chief plies all his power : 
The task, the dance, the drama, and the song, [2] 
Lend all their charms to drive delay along. 
Bear up, ye brave ! — soon Summer's smiling face 
Shall wake the savage to the wandering chase ; 
Where yon white wall its cheerless aspect yields, 
Midst lowering mists, and snow-inclouded fields, 
In his cold dome low sits the untutored man, 
Leans o'er his fire, and hails his crowding clan ; — [3] 
And he can here some pleasing influence feel, 
While to his cubs he parts the artless meal ; [4] 

[part VI.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. by 

Though cold the block that forms his wintry wall, 

Warm is the heart that feeds and fosters all. — 

Poor child of chance ! hath Winter shrunk thy store ? [5] 

Fear not, — there is a Briton at thy door ! 

He thy starved heart with plenty shall regale, 

And share thy sorrows when that plenty fail : 

E'en now he sighs to see thee languish there, 

The piteous victim of a cold despair ; 

Nor vainly sighs, but feeds thee from the fare 

His own hard fate assigns, — a scanty share. — 

Be bold in faith ; let not ingenuous worth 

Wake thy mistrust, or call thy scruples forth : 

Nor spurn the hand not lifted to despoil, 

But bless thy wintry hearth, and cheer thy toil. 

While hopes so fair within his bosom glow, 
And from the stranger's lips in suasive accents flow ; 
Such doth he deem the moment to impart 
The magic of his knowledge, what strange art 
Works in his winged home, what various hoard 
That vast and floating storehouse might afford. 

Caught with his tale, and of his charm possessed, [6] 
The embolden'd savage, eager to be blest, 
Each after each, becomes the Chieftain's guest : 
But, as he spreads his unprized treasure forth, 
(To their admiring gaze a mine of worth), 
Yielding the unvalued bead, a harmless bribe, 
To assure the favour of the facile tribe, — 
The glittering toy the stranger's hand displays, 
Wakes all their wonder, and commands their praise. 

Prompt thence to infuse with this untutor'd race, 
Instructive lore, and civilizing grace, 
Yet, studious, watch their instincts, nor contemn 
Nor shock their wanton joy at wonders yet to them, — 
The Chieftain, as their quickening hopes expand, 
Shows how the letter'd language of his land 



90 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Imparts their lives, the bitter ills they bear, 
And how the pencil speaks their features there : 
But glee intense and rampant wildness thrill 
Each breast, for further charms expanded still, 
While to their wondering gaze he bares unfurl' d 
The mimic kingdoms of the pictured world. — 
At length new gladness wakes the desert round, 
And the struck cliff beats back the exulting sound, 
While one, sagacious o'er the rest, betrays [7] 

A sudden memory of the shores and bays 
In that lone course of storm, wherewith to cope 
The Chieftain deem'd he might not vainly hope; — 
Some insight given might stead that Chieftain best, 
And the quick impulse trembled in his breast : — 
A shore is traced, the general hand employed, 
Till the stretched line fades to a nameless void ; 
Each cedes his skill, the Savage aids the art, 
Extends the limit, and completes the chart. — 

With hearts responsive to the gracious deed, 
That saved their hopes, the rallying crew proceed 
Through straits perplex' d the unerring course to wind, 
Unerring, though by savage skill denned. 

Yet first the Britons and their cordial Chief 
Comfort those wanderers, with well-timed relief 
Eeed their exhausted stores, and soothe their grief; 
Clear their dark views, and in their thoughts instil 
New schemes, and fresh contrivances of skill : 
Waked thus, they hail and welcome as their own, 
New shaping powers, and arts before unknown ; 
Thus schooled, their rude resources they increase, 
And gird their homes with implements of peace : — 
And this from mutual-plighted faith alone, 
In the kind act, and genial aspect shown ; 

[part VI.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 91 

Sweet intercourse humane ! that can disarm 
All enmities,— the true, the unfailing charm ! — 

But lo ! stern Winter, vanquished and forlorn, 
Yields his long night to Summer's bursting morn ; 
The glorious Sun sits in his fiery fane, 
To mar the mighty shackles of the main ; 
There, where his slumbering length the walrus roll'd, 
Stretched o'er a marble ocean, still and cold, 
Athwart the rifted ice, from shore to shore, 
Now might ye hear the unprison'd waters roar ; — 
And where the rock rear'd its stupendous height, 
In the wild vest of ever-dazzling white, — 
Or mists hung sullen on the snows beneath, 
Balk'd the far ken, and pressed the labouring breath, — 
There, the quick spirits of the new-born day 
Dance in wild joy o'er mountains far away ; 
There, on the green bank frisks the gladsome deer, 
And fearless feeds on thymy pasture there. 

Turn, Timoneer, turn then thy struggling bark, 
Cut the foam homeward ere the day is dark ! 
Tempt not the shore, nor leave the faithful helm 
For the dark guidance of yon treacherous realm ; 
Tempt not, — nor dare thy fatal step to take 
By Athabasca's far-sequester' d lake; — 
For one there is from Quest's adventurous train 
Lost in that wide and desolate domain : — 
Ill-fated Chief ! amid that world of death, 
Bare to the drifting of the wintry wreath ! 
O'er thy devoted form the Furies rage, 
And winds and snows their ceaseless warfare wage ; 
To such this hour thy famish'd frame is cast, 
Or, shroudless soon, shall whiten on the waste ; 
To-night the dreary desert is thy bed, 
Thy soul is sad, — thy home is with the dead ! — [8] 



92 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Infatuate Zeal ! — and is there aught so dear 
To tempt thee forth to thy destruction here ? — 
Oh, Tame ! 'tis thou canst cheer the darkest day, 
Thine are the charms that never can decay ! — 

Imposing Power ! thy glories still engage 
The flights of youth, and gravities of age. — 

When, loosed to avenge, the Warrior sweeps with speed 
His conquering fleets, nor seas nor storms impede ; 
And still triumphant in his single might 
Dares with redoubled foes the unequal fight ; 
Is it not, bright Divinity, thy charm 
That keeps him undismayed, and nerves his arm ? 
Thy rising star, whose radiant beauty leads 
The aspiring breast, and prompts to matchless deeds ? 
In war's wild dissonance his soul serene 
Hears but the prelude to that glorious scene, 
Where Conquest ushers him, the applauded guest, 
Benown'd through nations, and by strangers blest. — 

But turn from scenes where Carnage crowns the day 
With wreaths blood-stain' d, and pause we to survey 
Thy purer glories in a nobler field, 
Where gentler arms more genial laurels yield : 
There young Ambition, restless for thy wreath, 
Harangues his way, and lavishes his breath ; — 
At first, in accents modest and subdued, 
He asks no boon beyond his country's good ; 
But at thy call straight a new grace attires 
His kindling eloquence, he feels new fires ; 
Till terms new-nerv' d, at thy high bidding hurl'd, 
Lay empires prostrate, and convulse the world. — 

Great Fame ! let Hope but whisper thy award, 
Lo ! at his midnight task the sleepless Bard 
Sits pensive, when the world is all his own, 
And Thought keeps unob'serv'd her mystic throne ; 

[part VI.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 93 

With worldly cares, and penury oppress'd, 
To him day brings no joy, and night no rest; 
Wasteful Excess repels him from her board, 
And bloated Wealth locks his unhallowed hoard ; 
Yet when thy all-inspiring voice controls, 
Great joys are his, unknown to earth-bound souls ; 
Thy genius his impassioned spirit fills, 
Boldly he copes life's formidable ills ; 
Eenounces Nature's dues, and shuns her cheer, 
To urge the approach to thy celestial sphere ; 
Resolv'd through great exploit to lift on high 
The exalted name, or in the endeavour die ; 
Restless to grasp a visionary prize, 
And reach a fabled temple in the skies. — 

Research, the uneasy Spirit, anxious still 
To realize his dreams, and act his will, 
Caught with thy charm, goes busy forth to note 
Times beyond History's memory remote ; 
Digs the sunk city, and unearths the pile 
That looms o'er old Euphrates, or the Nile ; — 
Through palaces entomb' d he mines his way, 
And in the regal vault disputes the sway ; 
Where Death hath held, in undisturbed domain, 
Eor countless years his solitary reign ; 
Spells the carved mystery from its page of stone, 
And lifts to light the monarch and his throne ; 
And with unwearied zeal would pierce, sublime, 
Gulfs still unfathomed, to the source of time. — 

Majestic Eame ! thy influence rules the hour ; 
And all are subject to thy sovereign power ! 

Looking to thee, Science achieves her plans, 
Unveils new oceans, and new orbs o'erspans : 
She not content to roam her native fields, 
And search the hoards cultured Creation yields ; 



94 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

(Though Nature there, indulgent to expand 
Her mystic secrets with unsparing hand, 
Enrobed anew in wondrous Art appears, 
And half-reveals the magic of her spheres :) 
Content not in her own attempered isle 
To watch the Heavens, or delve the various soil ; 
Not yet content, hies for achievement strange, 
Beyond the reach of Earth, or Ocean's range, 
Or breath of life, to attain thy envied wreath, 
Even through the headlong path that leads to death. 

See ! where, thy thirsting Traveller, she stands, 
Erenzied for thee, midst Lybia's scorching sands ! — 
What though o'er wastes with hideous bones besprent, 
The grave of Zeal, Death's deadliest continent, 
The fierce Sirocco sweeps, and wan Disease 
Walks forth malignant, and infects the breeze ; — 
There, where the unburied relics strew the plain, 
Eate tells his dreadful tale, but tells in vain ; 
The horror-teeming wastes no fears infuse, 
Still there the Enthusiast his fell path pursues, 
With strenuous step persisting still to crave 
Thy boon, at once Ins glory and his grave ! — 

Such strength, all-powerful Eame, thy charms impart, 
And gain the willing homage of the heart : — 
Ennobled at thy call, Ambition speeds 
His various course that to an empire leads ; 
'Tis but for Time to award the impartial crown, 
And stamp thy sway an empire of renown, — 
What though obstructions cross the aspirant's aim, 
They but provoke resolve, and fan the flame ; 
What though unseen Mischance his path pursue, 
And wrecks of former failure crowd his view ; 
What though Detraction underrate his toils, 
Traduce his efforts, and deride his spoils ; 

[part VI.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 95 

Though hopeless want be added to his woe, 

And Death triumphant deal the final blow ; — 

His soul, but passed to a congenial shore 

Where toil subsides, and tumults are no more, 

Sees endless glories from that era date 

"When first it rose, superior to fate ; — 

Affection mourns his mortal form destroyed, 

Yet universal homage fills the void ; 

While Death that rends him from the endearing tie, 

Tells the reft spirit that he cannot die : — 

That form, though to sepulchral darkness hurl'd, 

Leaves yet the unfettered soul to walk the world : — 

Thy genius, Fame, in purer light array' d, 

With lingering halo haunts his sacred shade ; 

Despoiling death, thy treasured life succeeds, 

And amaranthine garlands wreath his deeds ; 

Thy quickening impulse a new being gives, 

His name still lingers, and his greatness lives. — 

EhTd with the future thus, as glanced his eye [9] 
O'er wastes that pine beneath the polar sky, 
To thee, proud "Fame, the adventurous Chief afar 
Drags through obstructing snows the un wieldly car, 
Rash with tremendous daring to control 
Great Nature's laws, and pierce the utmost Pole. 

Wrapt, all-prophetic, in thy future day, 
He works through treacherous mist his irksome way ; 
Where, rent from regions of eternal frost, 
Great Winter's fleets, the guardians of the coast, 
Icy gigantic shapes in wild extent, 
Moat o'er an ocean dark and turbulent, 
Whose depths a secret mystery conceal [10] 

No line can fathom, and no skill reveal. 

There with his band, in holy strength array' d, 
Unbent by toil, by danger undismay'd, 



96 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

The experienced Chief, considerate still to feel 
And share their toil, as he partakes their zeal, 
Wakes to his own their well-concerted power, 
To achieve the labours of each tedious hour ; 
There, manly lends his vigorous arm to quell, 
With wielded axe, each icy obstacle : — 
In him no fears the incumbent glaciers raise, 
He hath a trust no British Chief betrays ; 
His crew with shouts still follow where he steers, 
Tame points the path, and patriot- Yalour cheers : 
The unshaken phalanx strive through leagues of ice, 
Skim the rude plain, and storm the precipice ; 
The ascending launch urge with redoubled force, 
Or with the steel convincing, carve their course. 

Thus, at their toil intent, the sturdy crew 
Through wilds of ice a devious track pursue, 
Till, the slow, sum of stated hours fulfill'd, [11] 

Their ready hands a rude pavilion build ; — 
Prom its ice-path transferred, the shapeless sledge, 
Apart from fissure and the impending ledge, 
Touched by the wand of the contriver, Thought, 
Starts into life, a sudden temple wrought ; 
And as the adapted mast distends on high 
The cordage-span, and canvass-canopy, 
Unladen cars their precious stores disclose, 
Tor rude repast, and transient repose. 

A burden thus, by plastic touch subdued, 
Becomes the abode of peace and brotherhood ; 
The load of Toil, or resting-place of Ease, 
As instinct prompts, to encumber or to please ; — 
Such is the fleeting fabric that supplies 
The couch where Weariness overlaboured lies ; 
Research's treasruy, the goal, the^bode, 
Where Quest returns, and Forage leaves his load ; 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 97 

Where Provender spreads forth the important board, 
And Science «yes with smiles her growing hoard ; — 
The storehouse of their wealth, their wandering home, 
Where at their Chiefs paternal call they come, 
Like children loos' d a shortlived bliss to share, 
Eenew their gambols, and forget their care. 

Round the fix'd car the friendly awning braced, 
To exclude the sweeping rigours of the waste ; 
For watery course though shaped, transmuted now, 
The amphibious ark yields with inviting bow 
A portal, where the expanded canvass shows 
The pleasing prospect of that sweet repose ; 
That priceless boon vouchsafed to toiling Health, 
The poor man's guerdon, though debarr'd from Wealth ; 
Such as Despair denies to guilty Pain, 
And sceptred Luxury sighs for in vain, 
Midst walls of adamant, and beds of 'down, 
Secure in all the safeguards of a crown. — 

And now from care awhile, and toil released, 
When jaded Energy hath earn'd his feast ; 
And Plenty unembarrassed should afford 
Substantial gladness on a copious board ; 
O'er the scant scene impartial Thrift presides, 
And peremptory Rule the mess divides. [12] 

Yet through that Chieftain's temperate band is heard 
No voice to question his coercive word; 
Portion' d alike, no grief at partial good 
Inflames to mutiny the excited blood ; 
Nor mutter'd thought, nor dubious look implies 
The bosom's murmur, or the heart's disguise : — 
How could it be, in Toil's all-equal race 
That Disaffection e'er should find a place ; 
While he who rules, himself restricted by 
The levelling instincts of necessity, — 

H 



98 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



Be it in rest, repast, or active zeal, 
The strenuous effort, or the stinted meal, — 
Obeys, as he proclaims the cogent call, 
And shares alike as he apportions all. 

J Tis in adventure as in fields of strife, 
A stern delight to brave the stormy life, 
Its toils, its jeopardies, escapes and cares, 
In equal fellowship, — and such is theirs. 

Led by a Chief, whose discipline they love, 
As rivals in obedience throng to approve ; 
Pack'd round in calm and unassuming range 
(The heart expanded in the smile's exchange) ; 
Each with his comrade owns the all-stringent tie, 
Where mutual want breeds mutual sympathy. 

With step sublime, and dignified grimace, 
Here Pomp claims no priority of place; 
Exclusion here no barrier can create, 
And Pride in other regions keeps his state ; 
But the high feeling in the bosom fired, 
The pride by conscious hardihood inspired, 
Blent with that well-timed harmony of hearts, 
Which singleness of soul alone imparts, 
And temperate mirth, and buoyant hopes are all 
That mark this strange and desert-festival. 

As each receives his solitary cheer, 
His aspect brightens, and Content reigns here ; — 
He seeks, he needs no adventitious aid 
Prom courteous form, or menial parade ; 
No liveried lackey serves a banquet up, 
Eyes the quick glance, and fills the sparkling cup ; 
No ceremony thwarts the impatient guest ; 
No sauce awakes involuntary zest ; 
No dishes in luxuriant range display 
The ill-earned viands of the slothful day ; 

[part VI.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 99 

No savoury messes steam, nowhere appear [13] 

The smoking glories of the fatted steer; — 

But even-handed Thrift metes out with care 

To worn necessity the allotted fare ; 

Elastic Health, and unrepining Zeal 

Eye with an anxious glance the ungarnish'd menl ; 

While meek Content sits down with cheerful smile, 

Awaits his turn, and cooks his artless spoil ; 

A measured dole, nutritious not profuse, 

Just, and but just enough for Nature's use. — 

Thus each long changeless day leads on at last 
The welcome hour of refuge and repast ; 
When, their scant comfort and its season brief 
Ended, they crowd to their paternal Chief; 
And if their hard-earned revelry breed mirth, 
No supercilious frown forbids its birth ; — 
But, — as the sire, whose virtuous soul inclines 
Still first to obey the precept he enjoins, 
Eeclaims the truant, but respects the boy, 
Promotes his pastime, and partakes his joy; 
All rigourous restraint his heart disclaims, 
He charms from vice, and leads to nobler aims ; 
Till the fond charge sees in that sire a school, 
Where virtue trains him, and affections rule. — 
Thus He, the Chief, the father, and the man, 
Disdains with microscopic eye to scan 
Each slight misrule, or with stern aspect note 
Each buoyant jest that keeps their souls afloat : 
Mirth unrestricted reigns ; no envious eye 
Curbs the wild tide of social revelry ; 
Eree flies the random thought, unfetter' d now 
Bursts the heart's spring, and genial feelings flow ; 
With kindred joys, and stirring thoughts intense, 
Soul leaps to soul in mutual confidence ; 



100 AECTIC ENTERPRISE. 

And wit untaught, and playful jest prevail, 
Awake old Memory, and educe her tale. 

For casualties on board, and freaks on shore, 
Wanton they overhaul the old beldam's store ; 
And like true tars, of instinct prone to please, 
Old shipboard yarns, and tales of stormy seas, 
They deftly tell ; each, for his turn intent, 
Imparts with glee the ingenuous sentiment ; 
Plain-sailing, frank, and all-untutor'd by 
The schools of craft, disguise, and subtlety, 
Each bosom opens as its warmth expands, 
And the tongue rambles where the heart commands. — 

Thus wears the ambrosial moment ; no control 
Checks the wild whim, or stints the feast of soul ; 
Till, the loud jest outlaugh'd, outspun the tale, 
Lo ! (a mute incense at each interval) 
Oft from upwielded tube the evolving smoke [14] 
Its influence bland in wreathing volumes broke ; 
And tales were told, and still fresh volumes pour'd 
Fantastic magic round the social board. 

With gladness wing'd, while thus the indulgent hour 
Speeds, and wild wit and sprightly mirth have power ; 
Exempt from care, no harrowing thoughts disturb 
The social converse, or the soothing herb ; — 
Till Home, that forceful spell whose charms impart 
Unfailing refuge to the rover's heart ; 
That spot where all Life's treasured thoughts reside, 
Steals o'er his boisterous joy, and stills the tide. — 

Wrapt in his native hamlet's peaceful shades, 
A great yet temper' d bliss his breast pervades ; 
There, as he seeks his cottage in the dell, 
And Memory lingers where she loves to dwell, 
At once a thousand swelling hopes employ 
A thousand thoughts too great for outward joy ; 

[part VI.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 101 

Imagination burns with chastened fires, 

Tasteless the mirth subsides, and the loud laugh expires. 

What though that cot, that haven of his rest, 
Yet now, alas ! but in remembrance blest ; 
Lost to his eye, albeit that cot no more 
Ope to his weary step the welcome door ; — 
What though the crackling hearth, that wont to burn, 
An evening-beacon for his slow return, 
Illume no more for him the mouldering pile, 
To gild with brighter beam each social smile ; — 
What though for him can now no longer ply 
The expectant spouse her cottage industry ; 
No more replenish with affection's care 
The homely platter, or the couch prepare ; 
Charmed from his sports no more the favourite boy, 
With bounding step, and looks of speechless joy, 
Run forth the first his father's voice to hail, 
Cling to his feet, and coax the oft-told tale : — 
What though for him that well-known latch no more 
Tempt the benighted wanderer to the door ; 
No more at dusky eve, a pilgrim train, 
Ambitious still the accustom'' d hearth to gain, 
In motley guise, his old associates come, 
Where Toil reposing consecrates a home. — 

Yet Recollection wakes with all her charms, 
And brings each form in fancy to his arms ; 
Again he sees his old familiar place, 
Again his boy bounds to his long embrace ; 
His lonely cot appears, the clustering crew 
Of his old shipmates start before his view ; 
And as by Fancy's powerful wing upborne, 
He greets with cheering smile his spouse forlorn, 
Electric Thought brings back her fond reply, 
And though far distant feels her sympathy : — 



102 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

As each loved form and hallow' d haunt recurs, 
Quick in the kindling breast the emotion stirs ; 
His Fancy fires,, he sees that sacred spot, 
Which to the dying day is ne'er forgot ; 
That faithful sea-mark of his boisterous life, 
That welcome refuge from its storms and strife ; 
The haven of his hopes, where'er he roam, 
His heart's sure anchorage, — a Briton's home. — 

By such fond theme the Chieftain and his crew, 
Urg'd from their mirth, the wonted couch renew ; 
There while, imperviously remote, they lay 
(From home, from Britain's home, far-distant they), 
Wearied and scarr'd, their limbs in rude repose, 
Midst unrelenting blasts and sweeping snows ; — 
Still can each form, a pensive-pleading guest, 
Start with the vivid dream, and haunt their rest ; 
But, ah ! — too soon the flattering visions fly, 
And the day brings its stern reality : — 
Yet Fervour wakes with undiminished fires, 
His duty charms him, for his Chief inspires ; 
Still to that Chief, whate'er mischance betide, 
The watchful Guardian, and the faithful guide, 
With soul devoted turns ; hails with a smile 
His toil, forgets his thoughts, his home awhile, 
And feels, as in a father's care secure, 
A pride to obey, a glory to endure. — 

Bear up ! — Though loudly blow the impetuous blast, 
Soon shall the genial hour restore the past ; 
Lapp'd in repose, the indulgent dream once more 
Wake thee in slumber on thy native shore ; 
Or if some treasured tale, or deed of worth 
Dwell in thy revel, and protract thy mirth ; 
There o'er thy cold limbs wrap the furry cloak, 
Quaff the glad god, and sip the soothing smoke ; 

[part VI.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 103 

Strike fancied rocks, still straggle with the main, 
Tell all thy toils, and fight thy fights again. — 

Launch' d on the icy desert's dreary length, 
They spur their ardour, and distend their strength ; 
But while the involving drifts with eyeless wrath 
Sweep round the car, and block the dubious path; 
Bold in advance, where'er in cleft profound 
Death sets his snare, and Danger looms around; 
Unflinching foremost, lo ! one sacred form 
Probes the blown snows, and stems the obstructing 

storm ; — [15] 

They hail their Chief, the impulsive virtue feel, 
Seize his resolve, and emulate his zeal. — 

Thus through the night (for, still discreet to shun 
The fiercer terrors of the dazzling sun, 
The crew, responsive to the Chief's behest, 
Consign the night to toil, the day to rest), [16] 

Through the wan night, whose scarce-distinguish'd time 
Wears a strange aspect in that ghastly clime, — 
Save that some meteor's phantom-fire pass'd by, 
Or billowy seas o'erswept the electric sky ; 
Or ice-crag whirl'd beneath the hurrying blast 
Broke the death- stillness of that dreary waste, — 
Seem'd to the awe-struck thought, one changeless spell 
Bound in mute thrall the lonely spectacle. 

So deem'd the Chief, while, studious still to yield 
The foremost presence to the treacherous field, 
Midst intercepting snows his steps entice 
The obedient band through many a league of ice ; — 
A moment deem'd ; — yet other thoughts the while 
Swell in his soul, and other scenes beguile ; 
Bright scenes, and thoughts prophetic of the day, 
When Fame shall to a nation's proud array 
Shout forth his zeal, his wondrous deeds extol, 
And greet their guest, the Hero of the Pole. 



104 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Tims, though despair and darkness intervene, 
Anticipation reconciles the scene ; 

Though today's hope tomorrow's fate destroys, [17] 

Yet Fame, the Charmer, spreads her sure decoys : — 
There, though he sees portentous shapes arise 
Of spectres hovering in the lurid skies ; 
Though meteors in strange forms of fire appear, 
Sweep the vast void, and threaten his career ; 
Though dire eclipse the labouring moon enshroud, 
And bows of tenfold lustre span the cloud ; 
Though seas of light in Heaven's high cope appear, 
And strike with vocal fires the astonish'd ear; — [18] 
Unmoved in soul, with aspect scarce beguiled 
By all the wonders of an Arctic wild ; — 
Thy charms alone, majestic Fame, invest 
His towering thought, and animate his breast; 
For him, no meteor-blaze, thy beams unrol 
The quenchless fire that lights him to the Pole ; 
His philos opine eye pervades the air, 
But thine the glories that entrance him there ! — * 
Bright Power ! assured by thee, he smiling goes 
Through treacherous mists, and solitary snows ; 
And whether with unwearied step he treads 
Where'er the expanse of desolation leads ; 
Or, respite brief from toil, in slumber lies, 
His couch the ice, his canopy the skies ; 
'Tis thy great promise that supports his schemes, 
Fires all his energies, and fills his dreams ! — 

Arm'd in such hopes, and steadfast in his cause, 
Himself he scans, and knows no other laws ; 
Prompt to decide, and resolute to act, 
Doubt flies before him, and no fears distract : — 
Yet should a labyrinth of ice mislead, 
A storm arrest him, or a gulf impede ; 

[part VI.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 105 

If at such hour the strenuous effort fail, 
A doubt perplex, and wild dismay prevail ;— r 
Lo ! — as the Sun, ascending in his might, 
Rescues the world from storms, and puts to flight 
Those envious mists conspiring in the sky, 
To obstruct his path, and cross his majesty ; — 
Even so thy distant promise can assuage 
Tumultuous Winter in his fiercest rage ; 
Thy gorgeous splendours opening from afar, 
His guardian-genius, and his guiding star, 
New-arm the adventurer's heart, his hopes relume, 
Quell all his doubts, and dissipate his gloom. — 

There, as he onward stems his weary way, 
And still fresh charms thy beauteous orb array ; 
Each new-born hope that kindles his career 
To the bright precincts of thy glorious sphere, 
Teaches each step the impulsive fire to feel, 
And conscious triumph stimulates his zeal. — 
Still unappalFd, while yet thy peerless star 
Pours its persuasive radiance from afar ; 
Though Death with all his terrors intervene, 
And unremitting Winter crown the scene ; 
With zeal unswerving, and in spirit free, 
Beauteous Enchantress ! he still looks to thee ; 
Still struggles, though beset by death, to attain 
The golden portals of thy glittering fane. 



106 



AECTIC ENTEEPEISE. 

PART VII. 



" It is the cause — it is the cause, my soul !" 

Shakespeare. 

" Now far he sweeps, where scarce a summer smiles, 

3d isles." 
Campbell. 



ARGUMENT. 

Sir John Franklin. — Lady Franklin ; — her great affliction and 
devotedness the theme of universal admiration and sympathy. Hope 
revived. The national enthusiasm evinced by the successive expedi- 
tions of search for the "Erebus" and "Terror." Notices of Ross — 
Rae — Richardson. — Amateur Adventurers. Great preparations. 
Difficulty of adjudging the palm of honour where the merits so equally 
balance. Notices of Sir James Clarke Ross — Kellet — Beechey — 
Moore — Richardson. — The IT. S. Grinnell expedition. Enthusiasm. 
Notices of Sir E. Belcher, — Northumberland Sound — establishes 
himself in and names North Cornwall ; — reflections there on the proba- 
ble fate of the "Erebus" and " Terror." — Notices of M'Cormick. in 
the "Wellington Channel, — Caswall Tower, — Traces of Franklin, — 
Franklin's Beacon. Haunted shore. Bellot. — Sir John Barrow, 
his fame ; his devotion to the Arctic cause, revived in his son. 
Notices of M'Clintock — the Polynia Islands. Forsyth — Penny — 
Pullen — Sir Jorn Ross — Ommanney— Austin — Osborn. Traces 
at Cape Riley, Allusion to the Sledge-Adventurers. Notices of 
Trollope — Magtjire. Second great searching expedition by way of 
Behring's Strait. Notices of M'Clitre — course of that officer — ■ 
Polar pack — blasting operations — awe-awakening aspects of the 
Polar world; —smoking mounds — petrified forest — Esquimaux tribes, 
pacific and confiding ; — exception to this rule ; — tradition of the 

[PAET VII.] 



A.RCTIC ENTERPRISE. 107 

White man — his hut and tomb a mystery. Further course. — Bay of 
Mercy, — Winter quarters — festivities of the crew. — Sudden rescue. 
— Meeting of M'Clure and Pim on the floe ; — effect on the crew. — 
Consultations ; — abandonment of the "Investigator." Collinson — 
difficult course of — devotion of to his cause — discoverer of wreck- 
relics on the Finlayson Islands. Inglefield, remarkable voyage of 
round Baffin's Bay — scientific results — Intercourse with Esquimaux 
— Polar Spoils. — Eecapitulation of general efforts. — Address to Lady 
Franklin. Hope. Conclusion. 



But where art thou? — trie burden of our grief; 
The great, the brave, yet unreturuing chief : — [] ] 
Now, while Eesearch with Rescue leaves the land, 
And Zeal embarks her sons, an anxious band ; 
And Hope still lingers with her suasive song : — 
Where art thou now ? — methinks, thou tarriest long. — 
Say now what ills thy traceless steps assail ; 
What strange mischance, new to Disaster's tale : — 
Liv'st thou to combat still thine icy foe, 
Or hath a kinder fortune laid thee low ? — 
Com'st thou to greet triumphant welcome home, 
Alas ! — or must we mourn thy martyrdom ? — 

Heart-rending thought ! — was't not enough that thou 
In Battle's ocean-ranks had'st bared thy brow ? 
In storm or strife alike untaught to quail, 
Trafalgar's thunders, or the northern gale : — 
Not yet enough, great Chieftain, to have traced 
With patient step the North's extremest waste ? — 
Doom'd for long months to brave the polar wrath, 
With Want, and watchful Murder in thy path ? — - 
Such deeds of wildness built for thee a name, 
That Death, destroying thee, had fixed thy fame : 
Thou, who in strife and enterprising deed 
Had'st struck thy way, and gain'd the hero's meed ; 



108 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Fought to thy fame, and to the wintry Pole 
Steer' d forth, where'er Adventure's oceans roll; — 
Thou, but in this, thy latest deed unknown, 
How should'st thou think to heighten thy renown ? 
What lack'dst thou yet of glorious effort more 
To make thee great within thy native shore ? — 
But to the truest brave as 'tis most dire 
Dully to waste the life out, and expire ; 
So thou, disdaining all thy wreaths secured, 
And counting not the toils thou hast endured ; 
Setting thy peace, thy home, thy life apart, 
To achieve the end still nearest to thy heart ; 
With the unextinguish'd avarice of fame, 
Seek'st through some unknown death to immortalize thy 
name ! — 

Such thoughts are theirs who fear thy valour, — such, 
Who know thee, and who dread thy daring much ; — 
And these, though restless as the roving deep, 
Bugged and stern of aspect as the steep ; 
With hearts, ye'd deem, the tumults they have ranged, 
And rudeness of their lives had long estranged, — 
These yet are they who, from thy British shore, 
Gaze with a patient hope the waters o'er, 
And will gaze on when hope can be no more. 

And 'tis not one : — yet Oue there is of all 
Thy yearning land shall most bewail thy fall. — 
Ah ! — hapless Thou ! — the Lady of the brave 
And long-lost Consort we would find and save ; 
The Chieftain's lonely spouse, the tenderest, best, 
That Friendship e'er embraced, or Love possess'd ; 
Stedfast beyond thy sex, than thy compeers 
More valiant far, and great above thy fears ; 
For, more than woman mighty, thou wouldst brave 
The fatal North, though in despair to save ; 

[PART VII.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 109 

Thy home with its still-stringent ties forego, 
And seek, as of a friend in thy deep woe, 
From savage seas some comfort to create, — 
If but to be assured, and share thy husband's fate ; — 
Would'st deem it now thy kindest destiny 
To attain the fatal limit, — and there die ! — 
Oh, ever-gentle Sufferer ! could we trace 
Matchless devotion in a page's space ; 
Or were it in the Muse's art divine, 
To assuage thy anguish in a fleeting line ; — 
What might we say to thee ? What hope speak here, 
To dry the fount of thy prophetic tear ? — 
If skill' d to extol thee, or 'twere need to move 
A world's compassion for thy holy love ; 
Say, what new eloquence a language hath 
To express thy sorrow, or define thy faith ? — 
Oh ! in what strains the sacred theme to swell, 
Some deep-impassion' d soul the secret tell ! 
Say to what image of devotion turn, 
Alas ! — or in what pitying accents mourn ! 

Yet, sacred Form ! to appease thy bosom's pain, 
Life hath no balm, and pity wakes in vain ; 
Sweet Sympathy can work no influence there, 
Where Expectation lives but in despair : 
And, — but she yet might sway the cruel hour, 
That laid thy peace within the tyrant's power ; 
Roll back time's tide, reverse an ended date, 
And yet recal irrevocable fate ; — 
Can Friendship's halloVd tears avail thee aught ? 
Ah ! what avails the vainly-wishful thought ! — 

But though Conjecture with fond Fancy roam, 
Yet fail to bring one fair suggestion home ; 
And thy last hope be fruitless as the first, 
That last sad human hope to know the worst; — 



110 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Shall yet atoning Time no charm create, 
To assuage the stern severities of fate ? — 
Yes : — there shall rise, when all thy pangs are past, 
And to the grave thy grief subsides at last ; 
Prom the dark vista of departing years 
A voice shall rise, such as a nation hears ; 
And this shall be thy fame : — the historic page 
Shall bear thy truth to Earth's remotest age. — 
Mute o'er the tome eventful Time affords, 
There as the bard, wrapt in the past, records 
Some scene where hosts in spectral pomp arise 
Prom the dim paths of ended destinies, 
And Conquest with her cavalcade of woe 
Darkens the void, a nation's funeral-show, — 
Till, sated with the harrowing sight, he turns 
From strife's fierce pageantry, and martial urns, 
Enraptur'd with the new and bright design, 
Turns from the Spoiler's fame to picture thine, — 
Thy name shall, like some great Magician's wand, 
With awe majestic fix his faultering hand, 
The potent spell his struggling thoughts control, 
Chain his emotions, and entrance his soul. 
Yes, rarest pattern of surpassing worth ! 
If it be comfort to thee, in this dearth 
Of hope that thy sad heart's affliction brings, — 
More honour' d shalt thou be than mightiest kings ! 
Left in thy land's affections, treasured there, 
Most stringent of all ties that most endear ; 
Treasured when all our trophied myrmidons, 
The array of armies, and the pomp of thrones, 
Their lustre faded, and their plumes cast by, 
In undistinguished dust neglected lie; — 
In memory hallow' d, like some sacred spot, 
Some glorious relic of a world forgot ; 

[part vii.] 



AECTIC ENTEEPEJSE. Ill 

Time's rich bequest, our fondest, fairest pride ; 
The heroic most, — the more than Roman bride. — 

But Hope still lives, while lives the unquench'd desire, 
The enduring thought that cannot all expire : 
And now, e'en now, industrious to discern 
Some tardy promise of their Chief's return, — 
The sons of ocean, a wide-watchful band, 
Range, in unwearied round, each icy strand ; 
And, lost in dark Conjecture's endless maze, 
Breathe yet the wish, and fix the expectant gaze. 

What, though dull souls and sober instincts deem 
Hope an illusion, and Release a dream ; 
Yet, many a chief, impetuous for advance, 
Threads in bold thought the desolate expanse ; 
While lo ! to grapple with this great despair, 
Boss lives ; and Rae, and Richardson are there. [2] 

Assosiate heroes ! — fell Columbia's coast 
Hath tried your worth in famine and in frost : 
'Twas there your stern enduring greatness grew, 
Her shores and straits of ice attest ye true ! 

Some, freshlier-famed, in stormy skill though versed, 
And in the sea's rude cradle early nursed ; 
New yet to wintry waters, fresh in fight 
With solid seas, the floating glacier's might ; — 
Moved by the dirge of this all-piercing woe, 
Renounce their homes, their easy peace forego, — 
Peace, whose inglorious voice hath all too long 
Lull'd their fierce instincts with its wanton song ; — 
Yet seek not now Achievement's wonted claim 
In watery war, the plunder and the fame ; 
The furious onslaught, fell death- doing deed, 
And the vain boast to vanquish and to bleed ; 
But, sway'd by no dark purpose, with no fear 
Save such as wakens from Affliction's tear, 



112 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Forget the bloody mandate, iron rule, 
And the fell lessons of their floating school, 
With every hostile impulse, to contend 
For sacred triumphs, and a bloodless end. 

A bloodless end : where chieftains of command [3] 
Waive their proud claims in honour's ranks to stand ; 
Spontaneous merge their dignities, and vie 
With stripling heroes in hot rivalry. 

Nor thus alone ; men skill-less in the strife 
And stormy care of Ocean's troublous life; 
Men unacquainted, save where halcyon seas 
Dance to the music of the western breeze ; 
Luxuriant sunshine-revellers, ye'd choose 
As messmates in some fleeting summer-cruise ; 
Men to adventure's hardship all-unknown, 
The untried sea-rovers of the temperate zone, 
Where in gay pleasure's wake they yearly ply 
Their course, and take their sea-festivity ; — 
Caught by the cry to rescue and to save, 
Cry that fails never to convince the brave ; 
They, now content with sturdy tars to roam, 
The well-pick' d promise of their island-home ; 
Sudden disown their revels, and forsake 
Their recreant path, a nobler range to take ; 
Teaching that bark, their pastime's toy, resource 
Of ease and peace, to shape a stormier course ; 
Abjure her gilded glories all, expose 
Her tender frame to hyperborean snows ; 
Take a new trim, and woo with bolder sail 
The rude embraces of the Arctic gale. 

See now ! — impatient at the awakening call 
Of rescue for the brave, these worthies all, — 
Equipp'd for action, and in garb and guise 
Meetest-adapted to wild enterprise ; 

[part vii.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 113 

With stores apportioned to the expected toil, 
Provision for strange search alike, and spoil. — 
The chart out-limned by the latest skill, 
"With implements of curious science, fill 
In true sea-method a conspicuous space ; 
They have new depths to sound, new shores to trace : 
The fowling-piece they bear, yet bead and toy, 
Innocuous proof they come not to destroy ; 
The gun, but not for human slaughter ; such 
Is not their mission, though their dread is much ; 
A dreadful hope : — They bear a gentle tougue 
For friendly ear, for foe a cutlass slung. 

Thus each appliance, or for guard or guide, 
That Science might suggest, or Care provide ; 
All that the hand of plastic Art can form, 
Eor aid or safeguard in the nip or storm, 
Are lavished here. The fearful throat of war, 
That ancient glory of the British tar, 
Peers from each vessel's side, in grim display ; 
Such are for signal-sound, and not for fray : 
The sail swells too, where breeze to tide replies, 
Where not, the ungovernable Engine plies ; 
'Gainst obvious tide or tempest skill' d to stem, 
To man subservient, though unruled by them : — 
Gigantic wonder ! whose ne'er-tiring hand 
Convinces seas, where sail might not expand ; 
Mover alike when idle sails are furl'd, 
And workman still in Toil's material world ; 
Thou, whose compulsive force, and urging worth, 
Too long lay hid from burden' d sons of earth : 
Versatile Power ! — dost thou not live and feel 
Midst all thy panting fury, and wild zeal ? — 
Not vital, though, by that long stated wreath 
Prom thy loud nostril, thou dost seem to breathe ; 

i 



114 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



And motionless, though, when thy spirit wields 

Its might, earth shakes for fear, and ocean yields ! — 

Even such a Force, might hold in stern control 
The Atlantic furies, sweeps them to the goal : 
There, as their dangers grow on them, the power, 
That bore still helps them in the trying hour. 
They storm the ice-rampart, and the field invade 
Of well-pack' d winter where the breach is made ; 
Or. failing this, with forceful saw they quell, 
Or cleave with axe each icy obstacle : 
But where the unyielding element defies 
The penetrating keel, or saw's surprise ; 
They crush with power precipitate from high ; 
Or with destruction's subtler skill, apply 
The nitreous terror to the thick-ribb'd floe ; 
Shake, and convince it from the sap below ; 
The obstruction dire rend with explosive whirl, 
Or with descending bolt asunder hurl. [4] 

Arm'd thus for all, thus strengthened and secured, 
And by a trust in their good cause assured ; 
Buoy'd up, and waken' d by the haunting thought 
Of what their fore-sires in these seas have wrought, 
And hope, -that through some valour's frenzied deed, — 
Yalour, that passion of the life they lead, — 
They yet may come where, in some strange recess, 
Tiie brave they seek linger in wretchedness ; 
And help them to recal their ebbing breath, 
That so this search be not the search of death • — 
Ear in disastrous seas, where Behring's keel 
Eirst pierc'd, or shores first solv'd by Baffin's zeal, 
Intent on toil, for Rescue's deed well- arm'd, 
And by their sacred mission cheer'd and charm' d, — 
Through a new world of wonders, cold and strange, 
They shape their course, and take their dubious range ; 

[part vn.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 1 15 

A glorious baud, a galaxy of Fame, 

Their thoughts, their wishes, and wild cause the same. 

But you, great guardians of the poet's lay, 
Censors of rhyme, severe yet righteous, say ! 
In this proud throng of heroes, whose renown 
Cries out for justice, and an equal crown ; 
How shall the inpartial Muse the palm award ? 
Impartial Truth the worthiest worth record ? — 

First in Adventure's train, bold pioneer, 
See, at his post Antarctic Ross appear ! — [5] 

But vain the attempt by the all-unequal North 
To weigh his greatness, or compute his worth ; 
His matchless deeds, familiar most to fame, 
Let the fell Winter of the South proclaim. — 
Great in design, and sacred in his charge, 
Ample his field, and his experience large ; 
His crew well-train' d, his vessel stout and trim ; 
Grief dried her eyes, for Promise sail'd with him. 
But bootless all ; though every bay was traced ; 
Each headland conn'd ; while shore's and ocean's waste 
Bore on their brow the quick-conspicuous mark ; 
Guns spoke abroad, aud fires illumed the dark ; 
And wave-sent missive, and air-borne balloon, — 
•Heralds of hope to make their presence known — 
Cours'd the dense void, to sea and sky consign' d, 
The anxious posters of the wave and wind ; — 
While, girt with circling cymbols of relief, 
Behold ! — strange agents in the cause of grief — 
The untamed creatures of the desert share 
Their toils, and on the gracious quest repair ; 
If, chance, those wanderers of the waste might prove 
Kind couriers of a distant nation's love, — 
But vain : Strict in arrest, stern Winter still 
Subdued them, deedless, to his iron will, — 



116 AllCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

And baffled Ross returned :— Hope ceased to smile, 
And disconcerted Daring droop' d awhile. — 

But which is he ? the true confederate still, 
Whose restless spirit, and unbending will, — 
(In seas remote, where Beechey, name revered, 
Watchful whilom, his anxious pendant rear'd ;) 
Through ice-bound coasts in strenuous effort strove 
With Moore, who shrank not from the work of love?— 
Kellett, who, vainly-zealous, swept the tide [6] 
Of the isle-gemm'd Pacific in his pride ; 
And further went than where first Winter's morn 
Breaks on the brow of Behring's isle forlorn : — 
Him, Shedden, writ in fell misfortune's page, 
Shedden, who early caught the spreading rage, 
Eyed from afar, and, mingling in the strife, 
Gave to the cause his efforts and his life. — 

Fairly afloat, from cold Chamisso's isle 
They bore away through many a wintry pile 
Stupendous from the Pole ; — when lo ! at length, 
Mountains uprose of more than icy strength, 
Whose peaks, ascending through the clouds, appeared 
Of shape more strange and threatening, as they near'd ; 
In such, those giants of the North they scan, 
Seen, but which may not be approached by man ; 
Plank' d yet by floating forms of frost, that roll 
Diurnal round, — the sentries of the Pole. 

'Twas all they met : they found no trace, and heard 
No native tongue that could one clue afford, 
The following which might take these wanderers by, 
Where lay the mischief of their mystery. 

Thus Kellett went, and came ; he saw no sign, 
Save such as might make Grief the more repine. 
Yet he return'd ; though smother' d in his breast, 
The fire rekindled, and he could not rest ; — 

[part vii.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 11? 

Yet faiFd ; though lie achiev'd one noble aim [7] 
Nobly, — but such is of his after fame. — 

He fail'd ; and with him a great Searcher faiFd, 
Even in the field where erst his might prevailed ; 
That ruthless waste, where seem'd no Heaven to bless 
Or shield poor Nature in her nakedness : — 
He who, to furnish succour, and give breath 
To his loved chief, went through a living death ; 
True Richardson, whom famine could not quell, 
Who struck down Death, himself more terrible. — [8] 

But soft ! — there sometimes bursts upon the scene 
Bright promise where despair hath darkest been : 
And thou might'st yet, afflicted Spirit, find, 
Midst thy great griefs one mercy left behind ! — 
'Tis this, — where'er thy fears, thy hopes incline, 
Be sure, a People's sympathies are thine ; 
Nay, more ; — confederated nations bend 
Before these pangs that thy lone bosom rend, — 
Whose flags, in peaceful rivalry unfurPd, 
Bespeak the homage of a bonded world. 

E'en now, in this, the sacred zeal to save, 
Great to excess, unliinitedly brave, 
To achieve the rescue, or the untoward chance 
Envious to share, Columbia's sons advance : [9] 

Eor them no law confines the excursive keel, 
No nice restrictions regulate their zeal; — 
But, — as that symbol of thy constant soul, 
The unerring needle points him to the Pole, — 
Free at his post, the unfetter'd pilot still 
Plies through what seas he lists Iris awful skill ; 
Proud of his charge, and stedfast at the helm, 
Though storms conspire, and furious floods o'erwhelm, 
Eor thee, he lives within the wintry main, 
Alas ! — and braves the wintry waste in vain ! 



118 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

For thee, sad Mourner, coasts the impending steep, 
Yet yields thy canse abandoned to the deep ! — 
Leaves, unreveal'd, the dreadful secret there, 
And but returns to darken thy despair ! 

But though Experience, forceful at the wheel, 
Propels for thee in vain the impatient keel ; 
In vain assiduous Search overscans the chart, 
Dress' d in the treasures of his growing art ; 
While Hope's endearing smiles no balm impart 
To heal the wound that rankles at thy heart : — 
Yet Zeal awakes with all her British fires, 
For Britain's fame, and Franklin's fate inspires ; 
Eesolve steps forth, and Rescue from afar 
Mans the bold bark, and stores the important car ; 
And though still thwarted in that dark career, 
Where Navigation's sons had yet to steer ; 
New hopes enkindle him, new schemes arise, 
Eepulse but goads to bolder enterprise. 

Even so some torrent, baffled oft before, 
Seeks a new path, and channels out the shore ; — 
But fate and fresh disaster mark the course 
Of Effort's vain-reiterated force, — 
So the sea-surge, grown greater in retreat, 
With each new onset brings a new defeat. — 

But 'tis this force, in the stern field afar 
Of storm, or in the sterner field of war ; 
This will, that with the hard- wrought struggle gives 
The life, or with the accomplish'd triumph lives > — 
This 'tis whence greatness springs, in death or life ; 
Greatly to win, or perish in the strife : — 
This wakes the world ; bears still, and ever bore 
Strife's restless sons from a too-peaceful shore ; 
To yield their lives, a forfeit to renown, 
AYildly ambitious of a shadowy crown. 

[part vii.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 119 

Yet there's a holy zeal, a bright desire, 
Whose path is purer, and its hopes far higher ; 
Those hopes, albeit, less dazzling, and that path 
Leading more deeply into danger's wrath : — 
Such is their thirst, the Enthusiast-souls, who bleed 
Tor Heaven, or for their country, — glorious deed ! 
To uphold the majesty of Truth, or save 
Their tottering freedom from an abject grave : — 
Such men are great ; the greatest of the earth 
That reared their greatness, and that gave them birth. — 

Then there are some, something akin to such ; 
Their fire as fervent, and their faith as much ; 
Heavenly their aim, — for it is still the joy 
Of gracious Heaven to save, and not destroy ; — 
Their risk as wild, and with no more delay, 
For who to death more sudden-sent than they ? — 
These they who in some dreadful hour appear, 
When Hope, the star, is banish'd from her sphere 
Some time of direness, and dark tumult, when 
Self-love is seen mostly to sway with men : — 
Such forms, a scanty few, are sometimes found 
On the sea- wreck, or battle's gory ground; 
Or when in some strange season of dismay, — 
Feller than tempests, or the battle -fray, — 
Men in their unsuspecting homes expire, 
By onslaught of disease, or wasting fire ; 
Or lawless carnage, or commotion, — where 
Wild Mischief hath the rule, and foul is fair :— 
There, when no eye but One watches the toil, 
They stand, disputing with fierce Death their spoil ; 
A Heaven-sent guard, a phalanx of the brave, 
Midst the mad uproar left, to shelter and to save. — 

Allied to such grand natures, and as true 
And undisguised, are those the Enthusiasts, who, — 



120 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Thinking too sure, and frenzied at the thought, 

That, far from the known world in wilds remote, 

One, whom they honour most, evokes their zeal, — 

They fear it, 'tis the only fear they feel. — 

Evokes in prayers to the deaf desert given, 

But heard, they deem, above, and now sent down from 

Heav'n ; — 
By this brave fear incited, and the cry 
Of Love's too-long-expectant agony, 
That waits the brave, — that harrowing cry of Woe 
Left with her tears in home forlorn to flow, — 
Fired with the impulsive ardour all to cast 
Their lot with his who calls them from the waste, — 
They stake their fame, and bare their lives before 
Wild Death, and, if they might, would venture more, 
To unmask the hideous truth, the fate accurst 
That waits their witness there ; to seek the worst, 
Or seeking find, fortune, alas ! too bless' d, — 
The glorious boon, to rescue the distressed. — 
Such aspirations, though less lofty, bring 
Something for homage ; — and of such we sing. — 

Midst crags afar, where frost and storm conspire 
With famine's death to quench the vital fire ; — 
This zeal 'twas, whose unswerving stern belief 
Held that inquisitive far-piercing Chief ; 
He who by Osborn's cape of glaciers came, [10] 

And Grinnell's cliffs, link'd to a fatal fame. 
Sail served him not, yet, through alternate force 
Of struggling oar, aud labouring sledge, a course 
Open'd to a remote and ruthless shore, [11] 

Had only loom'd to human eye before : 
Woe to the crew within that coast decoy' d ! 
Horror's last bound, a voiceless land, and void, 

[part vii.] 



\ 



AECTIC ENTERPRISE. 121 

On whose seal'd shore the waves forget to roll, 
The utmost land that looks upon the Pole. 

Stablish'd his step, and of this shore possessed, 
Thoughts of that crew, the spirits of his quest, — 
Even as the visions of the spectral past 
Pervade the dream, too palpable to last, — 
Thronged o'er his soul with the receding main ; 
Yet here such thoughts were only thoughts of pain. 

" If through these waters wandering to their woe, 
" They took their portion with the drifting floe, 
" Where'er the ice swept they went, for 'tis most clear 
" They haul'd not in, and had no haven here." — 

Such anxious thoughts the experienced chief pursued, 
And made this waste a sadder solitude ; — 
The ice-berg's course round the forbidding bluff, 
And beetling headland, was for him enough ; 
So he retraced his range while yet he may ; 
Nature lent little to attract that stay, 
Whence he, perchance, his own sad doom might date ; 
Another victim to a ravening fate : — 
Science on shores like these could play no part, 
Amid such skies vain were her visual art. 
Prom scenes where Death triumphant reigns alone, 
Which e'en the instinctive savage doth disown, 
Nature with all her vital influence flies, 
And all her train of genial sympathies ; 
Science retreats, despairing of his spoils, 
The Muse shrinks back, and shuddering Thought recoils. — 

Yet fearless here could fond M'Cormick urge [12] 
His " Hope Porlorn" amid that dashing surge ; 
Snatching his couch from the storm's sweeping wreath, 
His refuge from the ice-berg's brow beneath ; 
Or, harness'd to the sledge, stern pastime, traced 
His Chieftain's step throughout that dreary waste, 



122 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Where Cas wall's mount in towering grandeur told, 

That Chief was wont his wintry wake to hold ; — 

Or onward swept, where polar waves afar 

Wage with pale Osborn's cliffs unceasing war, — [13] 

Saw that strange rock uprear'd, whose stalwart form, 

Standing, like virtue, scathless in the storm, 

Waked forth the wild thought, from his shaping brain 

Fantastic struck, — it was a thought of pain, 

That all the terrors there might not restrain ; — 

He named it, and that name shall be sustain' d 

An age, even as that mockery hath remained ; 

He named, and well that honour' d name expressed 

The mournful hope yet lingering in his breast. 

'Tis hence a haunt ! — albeit that ghastly place 
Lacketh no spectre's visionary race 
To make it fear'd ; yet there, at stated hour, 
When the time brings the apparition's power, 
A gracious Phantom comes, in light array' d : 
That gracious Phantom never can be laid ! — 
Hurl'd by the blast beyond the power to save, 
A bright Form fell : — it had an icy grave. — 

Lamented Bellot ! — Science' favourite child ! [14] 
Adventure's soul! — whose presence still beguiled 
Toil of his burden, — Suffering of her pains, — 
Oh ! — what of all thy promise now remains ? 
Words, that bewail thee to the blast alone, 
A desert-record, and a grave unknown : — 
Yet, sacred Shade! at yon impassion'd shrine [15] 
The tribute of a noble grief is thine ! 
A grief, whose throes, graved on a deathless page, 
Tempest shall ne'er efface, nor time assuage ; 
Such as in secret bosoms inly burn, 
Aad such as speak aloud when nations mourn ; 

[part vii.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



123 



All that the pangs of ceaseless anguish prove, 
The ties of virtue, fellowship, and love. — 

And there is One, whose fondest thoughts in vain 
Dwell on thy memory, and partake the pain : 
His Sire was skilled in various Nature's laws, 
And, like true Sabine, fervent in his cause ; 
As that cause wander' d, or its course was changed, 
From zone to zone his thirsting spirit ranged, 
Unsated ; and, though his — that Icy Strait 
"Whose portal dire led Franklin to his fate, — [16] 
No nobler zeal e'er urg'd the adventurous quest, 
The fire ne'er kindled in a purer breast. — 
He died renown' d : let not Ambition pine, 
Or Science, unconsol'd, her hopes resign • — 
Lamented died ; yet in his name he lives, 
And with that life renew' d new lustre gives : 
Lo ! in his dust the Phoenix-fires remain, 
And in his honour'd son he lives again. — [17] 

Thus, as thine eye athwart that desert sent, 
Watch' d in fond thought the lurid element, 
Haply, M'Cormick, didst thou muse awliile, 
On thy far friend with memory's pensive smile. 

But He, thy colleague in this quest of fear, 
Toiler alike with thee, and brave compeer ; 
He, whose bold step, by suffering unsubdued, 
Expansive rang'd to that cold solitude, 
Where, midst the clash of ice, an awful scene, 
Still -vex'd Polynia sits with brow serene, [18] 

In conflict of perpetual storm, to appease 
Winter infuriate in his utmost seas. — 

Unshrinking zeal ! how may the Muse aspire 
Thy meed to award, or emulate thy fire ? — 
Such then, and more of grandeur yet unsung 
Leave we to time, and Truth's impartial tongue : 



124 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Deeds speak their dues; with justice fair and even 
Let then to each the honour' d palm be given ; 
Years boundless still M'Cormick's zeal proclaim, 
Wreaths ever-fresh bedeck M'Clintock's fame. — 

It was tins restless zeal, this thrilling thought, 
This harrowing outcry of distress that brought 
The unflinching Forsyth forth ; he, whose bold prow 
Pierced, like a Power of life, the obstructing floe : — [19] 

Penny, for this, renounced his ancient fame, 
And shaped his prowess to a nobler aim ; 
The intrepid whaler, — he, whose sterling worth, — 
Old in the storm, familiar with the north, 
Inspired a promise like his spirit large, 
And bless' d those barks, confiding Sorrow's charge;- — 
Those barks of hope, — oh, ever-honour'd Chief ! 
Stamped yet with living fears, and named of grief ; 
Mute signs, more wakening to thy manly sense 
Than vocal Woe in all her eloquence : — 
Fraught thus, a twofold blessing on thy store ; 
What might Faith do, or fond Affliction more ? — 
Unswerving Chief ! in sorrow's cause most true ! 
So with that cause thy force and fervour grew : 
Train' d to the search, in Danger's straits well- skilled ; 
All that thy genius taught, thy zeal fulfill' d. — 

Even so that Chief, who, rallying from afar, 
Gave to the spheres of Hope another Star ; [20] 

But, mark'd for varying fortunes to the end, 
In fervent Hooper lost the unfailing friend ; — 
Pullen, — whom course eccentric, and wild range, 
Or on the sea, or shore, iu ceaseless change 
Impell'd, eventful : — yet one pang possess' d, 
One thought electric ran throughout his breast. 

This roused the veteran to a fresh crusade ; 
Cited the indomitable Ross ; and bade 

[part vii.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 125 

Bold Ommanney the arduous palm dispute, 

And Austin, like his bark, the Eesolute ; 

While Osborn (name for no inglorious page), 

With a quick frenzy took the infecting rage : — 

True friends of misery who, forceful, plied 

The embarrassed helm through Baffin's cumbrous tide ; 

Nor stayed till Biley's memorable cape 

Spoke, but, alas ! told not the course to shape ; — [21] 

Eiley, the portal to these fearful woes, 

Yet now the source whence brightest hope arose ; 

Eiley — where still some Spirit seems to say — 

"Behold !— his step !— Thy Chieftain is away !"— 

Sighs to the blast, and in the desert air 

Guards the fond spot, and breathes the plaintive prayer ; 

Nor might the all-sweeping storm that trace bedim, 

That lonely trace yet left to speak for him. — 

Yet wherefore pause ? what shall be said of those 
Who scaled with patient sledge the obstructing snows ? 
Why should the Muse their humbler deeds contemn ? 
Is there no wreath, no laurel left for them ? — 
What of those sturdy Eesolutes who bore 
Discovery's pendant round that ruthless shore, 
Where, in despite of tumult, and of storm, 
And Death's stern power in every fatal form, 
By Polar frost unquench'd, the zealot's fire 
Lived in the breasts of Trollope and Maguire ? — 
Heartless the muse, in whose too partial page 
Sons all as worthy have no heritage ; 
Though foil'd in hope, be they remember'd all, 
True to their honour, and their country's call. — 

But One came back, a partner in defeat, [22] 

Though arm'd with wild equipment all complete 
Eor wildness, such as might the best appal, 
And make them think what 'tis to cope withal. — 



126 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

He 'twas who first pursued a devious chase 
Oblique, by that huge's promontory's base, 
Where wild Magellan with impetuous sweep [23] 

Lets in the torrents of an ocean's deep. 

Thenceforth at length emerged, and nothing loath, 
But with a zeal that grew with Danger's growth, 
He ploughed the deep Pacific's watery way, 
Through many a boisterous league, and dreary day ; 
Yet was he calm, and in whatever clime 
Wild Fortune thrust him forth, could bide his time : — 
This gift, and such-like of great Nature's care, 
His lot 'twas with Adventure's best to share ; 
Courage to cope, and patience to endure, 
Were given to all, nor, least of all, M'Clure. — 
If aught of specious tongue this praise dispute, 
Judge if his acts bespeak such attribute ; 
See him amidst his polar terrors cast, 
Even as a rock, left lonely on the waste ; — 
And, as some pine, on Alpine crag on high, 
Spreads its broad arms, and leans along the sky ; 
Now here, now there, by furious tempest driven, 
Hangs o'er the abyss, or towers into the heaVen ; — 
Thus to his word his steadfast bark replies : 
Yields with his will, and with his force defies, — 
Baulk' d of some aim, or traversed in his track 
By the huge fastness of the polar pack ; [24] 

With trenchant zeal he strikes the impervious bar, 
Or shivers with the explosive dint of war : 
The obstructive foe convinc'd, and channel clear' d, 
With the ever-varying tack a course is steer'd ; [25] 
While ever-varying hazards, far and near, 
Impede the advance, and threaten his career. — 
But as the sea, on some new spoil intent, 
(His wild, Iris own congenial element), 

[part vii.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 127 

Breaks from its bounds, and revels as it goes, 
Though mountains rise, and Nature's self oppose ; 
O'erbears restraint, and till its goal be won, 
Rolls, unconcerned, in conscious greatness on : — 
Thus, of repulse regardless, and resolved 
But the more sternly as the more involved, 
The unshaken Chieftain strives ; no effort tires, 
And baffled triumph but the more inspires. — 

Such toilsome cares might quell the manliest nerve ; 
Yet Honour's voice forbade thy soul to swerve, 
Where, though in range restricted, thou could' st find 
Pull scope for thought, the freedom of the mind ; 
Not that thy time went wearily, though toil 
And care might something of its zest despoil ; 
Tor many a nameless marvel met thy gaze, 
Nameless, as known not to thy former days ; 
Sights wonder-waking, shapes grotesque and strange, 
Not of thy wonted nature's worldly range, 
As some great sorcerer's hand had wrought the change : — 
Of such that beauteous wonder, where the North 
Opens the Heavens, and, wildly flashing forth, 
Legions of fire, in ever-varied form, 
Chase the dark night, and dance upon the storm. 
But if strange sights uprose those waters o'er, 
Sights all as strange came pictured from that shore ; 
Fires from the earth, and forests struck to stone : [26] 
Rare aspects, e'en within that mystic zone. 
Yet 'twas thy joy, in that unearthly wild, 
To find in Nature's a confiding child; [27] 

And, as it much imported thee to wear 
A gracious aspect, and a winning air, 
Even if with bribes, pure as were thine, to buy 
Their good-will all, and seal their sympathy ; — 



128 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Thyself and cause to ingratiate with these, 

Watch each suspicions instinct, and appease ; 

Anght that might waken fear or doubt remove, 

And fill its place up with quick proof of love ; — 

Such was thy art : — yet once, with bended bow, [28] 

'Tis told, and brandish' d blade, in hostile row 

They gathering stood ; — why, — let the sequel show. — 

Their ire assuaged ; 'twas to avenge the slain, 
Their fears declared, thy crew were on the main ; 
To avenge the white man, whom in this remote 
And silent shore they buried, where they smote ; — 
Then came the thought that filFd thy soul with gloom ; 
A murdered man, — a white man, and his tomb ! — 

He had been left, and, straying here abroad, 
His comrades lost ; — at this thy soul was awed : 
None knew their coming, how or whence they came ; 
Eor their departure too "'twas much the same, 
Save for this one : — Hard by, a hut there stood, 
Had been the abode of this their solitude : 
They had ranged south, it seemM, — he luckless-left, 
Of food and his associates all bereft, 
Had fallen, or by the bow or treacherous knife : — 
His was a lonely death and lonely life. — 

Set by the terror of this tale aghast, 
Thy course was shaped albeit thy anchor cast ; 
That course the guidance of the savage gave ; 
There was the hut, a ruin like the grave, 
To attest some deed of darkness, that forbade 
All question ; — yet a hideous fear was stayed : — 
Thy floating charge awaited thee, and now 
Thy footsteps hastened to ascend the prow, 
In sadness, yet with this assurance fair, 
'Twas not thy honour' d Chief who rested there; 
And, like a troubled dream, the tale passed by ; 
Departing, as it came, a mystery. — 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 129 

Tims, betwixt death and life, a fell suspense ; 
Outcast, and left alone to Providence ; 
Through many a weary month's all-watchful gaze, 
No trace of wandering woe thy search repays ; 
No sign of piteous sojourn, here, I ween, 
Encouraged thee to think thy brave had been ; 
Nor might emerge from ice or ocean aught 
Of dire disclosure to appal thy thought : 
Yet many a shore and unswept sea's expanse 
Looms, and awakens to renewed advance. 

At length despondent, — for the brave despair, 
When all is done that valiant soul may dare, — 
The bark, before a breeze that favoured still, 
With easy canvass made her course, until, 
Fix'd by the frost, with sails unbent, she lay, 
Secure in Mercy's memorable bay : — [29] 

Mercy, well-named; in homage to high Heaven 
For many a peril past, and many a mercy given. 

Closed all the hatchways, and the vessel housed ; [30] 
See, now the feeling of the sailor roused ! — 
Albeit of that most sacred purpose foil'd, 
In which so long and vainly they had toiTd ; 
Despite of this, a boisterous spirit reign' d ; 
The crew were safe, and a great conquest gained ; 
And lo ! — while deepening winter shuts the scene, 
And the deer herds into the deep ravine, 
Content to brouse on Nature's latest gift, 
The stunted willow struggling through the drift, 
Whose sheltering nooks afford what cheer they can 
To the furr'd hare, and feather' d ptarmigan ; — 
All overlaid the bark, and bank'd with snow, 
To exclude grim winter from the life below ; 
" Splice the main brace !" — the cordial chieftain cries, 
The crew, as cordial, with the shout replies ; 



3 30 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

And thus, midst glee by heightening blasts increas'd, — 
The goblet's glories, and long-lengthen' d feast, 
With revelry of reckless langh and song, 
And dance grotesque, the mirthful night prolong. 

Thus flew the festal hour : but counsels grave, 
Of ship to extricate, and crew to save, 
Come with the morn ; that time, to sons of earth, 
When thoughtfulness succeeds to waning mirth. 

At length, full long in irksome chains inthralTd, 
New dangers threatening as their pastimes palTd ; 
Came gradual o'er that crew a gathering doom ; 
Yet they were sailors, and dispersed the gloom : 
Exertion roused them, and the exciting chase, 
That fed, impelTd them to the field apace ; 
Yet had they much to do to keep their heart ; 
Cut off, it seem'd, from all the world apart, 
In lone vast wilds, where Winter, pale with wrath, 
And bristling with ice-ramparts, closed their path ; — 
Their stores ebb'd too, it could not bat be so 
With men dependant on a waste of snow. 

Thus as they droop' d, yet drooping, turn'd awhile 
Each to his shipmate with a casual smile ; — 
Behold! — all-sudden as some sight that comes [31] 
To wandering eye from Heaven, or from the tombs, — 
Athwart their chieftain's course, — who daily wont 
To walk the floe, — a figure wild and gaunt 
Loom'd through the distance, indistinct ! yet like 
No denizen's of earth its features strike ; — 
The crew were busied at their various charge, 
The sick in hammocks slung, the chief at large : — 
What should he do? — at first his doubts arise, 
Then stern dismay comes o'er him, and surprise ; 
Beckon'd in advance, dark notions throng'd his thought, 
Yet fled when once that stranger's voice besought ; 

[part vii.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 131 

And though like Tartarus that brow, it beani'd, 
And to his kindling gaze an angel's seemM. 
Eor his appearance, and his mission here, 
A few brief accents made that matter clear ; 
Spare are the words the brave give to the brave, 
It was enough to say, he came to save.— 
Swift through the cordage, to each cabin, flew 
The gracious errand to the astonish' d crew ; 
They raved with joy, all cold despondence fled ; 
Toil struck electric stood, and from his bed 
Disease leaped forth, while all with straining neck 
Throng through the hatchway, and pervade the deck. 

HeromM by this craving concourse, in a trice 
The Stranger — and for that few words suffice, — 
Disclosed ; — a moment motionless and dull — 
Eor at this sudden stroke their hearts were full, — 
The crew took mutely the first shock of joy ; 
But soon impetuous acts that spell destroy; 
And now such uproar rose as will arise 
Even at such times, and in such destinies. — 
" Honour to Kellett, and to Pirn no less ! 
" True friends, and great deliverers of distress !" 
PeaFd with each shout from shore to opening shore, 
Eierce plaudits, such as francluVd souls outpour ; 
The rocks informed rebellow to the roar ! — 

At length this tumult stilPd, a calm ensues, 
Where coming cares more sober thoughts infuse ; 
Though parley's voice, that, oft uprising, swells 
With the great theme, its tale of wonder tells. 
Subsiding such, the Chief unfolds his plans ; 
The sled-borne Stranger lists, and straight overscans 
Each gathering group, soon to be carried hence, 
Erom want and toil, to rest and competence. — 



132 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Brave Chief I well had'st thou pass'd a fearful date; 
Why should thy feelings then prolong thy fate ? 
Why should' st thou tempt thy fortune, and lay bare 
Thy lives and safeties for thy vessel's care ? — 
Yet 'twas to thee a grievous sadness this, 
Thy worthy bark that brought thee to thy bliss 
To abandon, turn thy back upon the friend 
Whose faithful bosom bore thee to the end. — [32] 

Much hast thou done, — if still the impartial test 
Be to have done what baffled all the best ; 
And flung within thy grasp a glittering prize 
Yet unachieved by toiling centuries : 
Fortune's great boon, who favoured still the bold, 
Yet, favouring, could her highest gift withhold ; 
Leaving an-unattain'd that fearful end, 
Where haply yet the unfinish'd Pates impend.— 
Capricious Power ! — how might the poet raise 
The enraptured strain, all-vocal in her praise ; 
Had she but smiled, propitious still, to assure 
This triumph thine, unflinching brave M'Clure ! — 
This, for exulting ages to proclaim 
The crowning act, the keystone of thy fame ! — 

Yet favoured thus, not thine alone the meed 
Of daring effort, and adventurous deed ; 
Por the same field where all thy wreaths were won, 
Mark'd the fond course of faithful Collinson. [33] 

Devoted chief ! in honour's arduous race, 
'Twas thine Columbia's loneliest bound to trace ; 
There with wide-watchful eye thy search expand 
Through the seal'd winter of that sinuous strand ; 
And,— as some tempest, whose impetuous speed, 
Obvious on high the cavern'd cliffs impede, 
Baulk' d of its range, with searching sweep explores 
Each secret cove, and inlet of the shores, — 

[part VII.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. I< 

Thus through the rugged scene to work thy way, 

Great in rebuke, undaunted at delay ; 

Wind through each icy labyrinth, and seek 

The tortuous terrors of the mazy creek ; 

And trace, though baffled oft, with earnest force 

The cold obstructions of the dubious course. 

Fair promise shone from thee, and likelihood 
Of deed triumphant mark'd thy gallant mood ; 
Thy country look'd on thee as one from whom 
More than his proffer' d word is wont to come : — 
Pure-minded man ! — Affliction saw in thee [34] 

The unboastful bearing she delights to see ; 
Saw, and by mute and tranquil trust disclosed 
The joy that followed from her hopes reposed : 
Nor didst thou yield thy charge, but, — as 'tis proved 
They have hoped longest who the most have loved; — 
Thy quest became a passion, a stern will, 
Not to be deem'd a vain pursuit, until, 
Too well assured for promise to beguile, 
Fell ruin met thee on that voiceless isle, 
Where, as thou see'st, wreck-fragments scatter' d lie, 
In dreadful note of some dark destiny. — 

Not far remote from this, in an accurst 
And dreary waste, the dreariest and the worst, 
Death tells the tale, and Famine hath revealed 
Her hideous secret on that fatal field. — 

There sunk the gentlest, — there the bravest fell ; 
Let Time's unerring tongue his virtues tell. — 
But we will mourn thee ! Truth's impartial hand 
Shall write thy greatness, and a conscious land 
Something assert for thee, oh, ill-starr'd Chief ! 
Beyond the homage of a transient grief ; 
What were it but the palm that victory gives, 
Greatest in death, — the glory that outlives ? — 



134 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Justice demands this tribute to thy fame ; 

And fatal triumph sanctifies the claim. — [35] 

What then avails it that the Muse prolong 
The baleful theme of this protracted song ? 
With thee, sad Shade ! her visions pass ; the hour 
That seal'd thy doom confounds her faltering power : 
With thee she fails, hears in thy distant knell 
The lingering cadence of a broken spell, 
And leaves thee to the blast, — whose icy sweep 
Howls o'er the cold couch of thy silent sleep, 
Where yet the cypress a fond wreath shall twine 
With deathless laurel o'er thy lonely shrine ! — 

Here might we end, here at this fatal bourn ; 
What fitter end than with the brave we mourn ? — 
Here might we end : — but now, methinks, 'twere meet, 
We turn yet once with parting strain to greet 
One favourite son of ocean-fame, the Chief 
Latest elected for this wild relief, 
Not least-accomplish' d ; for Affliction's faith 
Goes with him, and sweet blessings guard his path. 

Unwearied Rover ! who more prompt than thou [36] 
To push through pathless seas the inquiring prow ? 
See through the mist, and in the stormy strife 
Glean from each shore new scatter' d forms of life ? 
And, cull'd with studious care, new themes impart 
To Science, and reclaim the erroneous chart ? 
New starry realms from other clouds unrol, 
And pierce new portals to the unyielding Pole ? — 
There, through the fastness of the whale to urge 
Thy restless keel, and see what seas emerge ; 
What human forms in the wide waste abroad, 
Left to the common care of Nature's God, 
Range for the spoil on want's instinctive road, 
Returning to that still-unbless'd abode, 

[part vii.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 135 

Where thou might'st, welcome to the cell of snow, 
The kindly gift with the kind smile bestow ; 
Call all their slumbering sympathies to birth, 
Be one with them, and mingle in their mirth ; 
Or, if by Science' taking charm beguiled, 
Scale the rude floe, and probe the unsheltered wild : 
But, should the important chase command thee still 
To wake the efforts of thy slaughterous skill, — . 
Confront the bear, or combat with the whale ; 
And tell in artless phrase the awakening tale. 

Yet not with thee colloquial terms alone 
Suffice to expound, and make thy marvels known ; 
Lo ! at thy touch, the Picture and the Page 
Their charms combine, and in thy cause engage ; 
"Es thine to pen the amazing scene, and trace 
Its ruder features with the pencil's grace. 
But if, well-tutor' d in those mystic skies, 
And girt with spoils of polar enterprise, 
Thou bring' st, at thy return, a cheerless heart ; 
Yet hast thou nobly play'd a manly part ; 
And foil'd, albeit, like others, in thy aim, 
Pure was its purpose as thy spotless fame. — 

Bais'd from the scene whence former visions rise, — 
The glorious visions of past destinies, — 
Such our last spectacle of worth and woe, 
And such the unfaltering brave that fill the show. 
There in wide search they range, and range again, 
Up-open many a wintry field in vain ; 
Illume the skies with hope's wild signs, the spire 
Of light explosive, and the rocket's fire ; 
And, where such signs might marshal their approach, 
Or car might penetrate, or keel encroach, 
Lay up the treasured provender, and shape 
The signal-column on the beetling cape ; 



136 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Thread every nook, each jutting headland scan, 

Devise each scheme, and practise every plan, 

That human thought might frame, or human power 

Execute in despair's indignant hour. 

Thus sights, and sounds, and signals of release, 

Eloquent tongues of succour and of peace, 

Speak through the void, where'er the ocean holds 

The floating rescue in its icy folds ; 

Earnests of stubborn Hope, who loves to build 

Her beacon best in that disastrous field, 

Where, chance, some piteous remnant might be led 

To life, — some yet left, lingering from the dead. — 

In vain. — -Yet ere the Muse with partial haste 
Yield her dark page, the Drama of the past ; 
And close the curtain o'er that harrowing scene 
Where the last struggles of the brave have been ; 
Behoves her still the generous voice to raise, 
Albeit in echo of a People's praise. 
Lo ! — as those visionary scenes expire, 
That kindled, and sustain' d her feeble fire, — 
A faithful band of Patriot-Rulers rise, [37] 

Even as they rose in former destinies, 
Whose Chiefs go forth that cruel waste to roam, 
Bring from their desert-death, these Wanderers home, 
And, in a less ungenial soil, consign 
The sacred relics to a worthier shrine. — 
Urg'd thus by manhood's noblest ties to feel 
Their own true greatness in their Country's weal, 
Be they thrice-bless'd, — the Patriots who approve, 
And the brave Chiefs who at their bidding rove ; 
Eenown'd, while fearless Yirtue hath a claim, 
Worth wakes esteem, or Honour leads to fame. 

Let then this thought, all- constant Grief impart 
Some peace to reassure thy bleeding heart ! — 

[part vii.] 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 137 

Some guardian-power within the thickening gloom, 
To arrest thy steps, and keep thee from the tomb ! — 

Yet, if thy pangs pursue thee to the end, 
And thou, relentless fate, alas ! — must bend; 
There's yet a refuge, a sweet source of joy, 
That time cannot impair, nor fate destroy : — 
Thy husband is beyond this pain, and Heaven, — 
Merciful most where most the chastening hand is given, — 
Withholds him from thee : — let this thought beguile, — 
What is all absence but a death the while ? — 
He is beyond thy pain, a sacred Shade, 
In amaranthine fields of bliss array' d; 
Where Prayer sends up her Heaven- subduing power, 
And soul-inspiring Hope asserts the hour ! — 
Hope undismayed, who, in her flight sublime 
Beyond the bounds of Nature and of Time, 
Superior still to the world's passing woes, 
Pictures in higher spheres a sure repose. 

Then peace ! — there comes a messenger of love, 
To guide thee, Mourner, to those fields above ! 
Take comfort then, a never-failing guest 
Returns, poor reft One, to thy widow' d breast ! — 
And, as that star, blest emblem of thy soul, 
That constant star, still nearest to the Pole, 
Marshals the heavens, and, foremost in array, 
Holds o'er the howling north his stedfast sway, — 
Thus, unobscured midst Danger's threatening train, 
Pirst-born of Heaven, eternal Hope, remain ! — 
What, though the joys of fleeting Nature cease, 
Thou art the herald of unfading peace ! 
Thine the true refuge of the soul distress' d, 
The holiest comfort of the stricken breast. — 
But, oh ! — when Sorrow sinks into despair, 
Be bounteous most, immortal Spirit, there ! — 



138 AECTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Bright Source of smiles ! sweet Offspring of the skies ! 
Oh ! there, with all thy fairy-influence rise ! — 
There, while the future darkens o'er the past, 
Lend all thy charms, and linger to the last ! 



THE END. 



139 



AECTIC ENTEBPBISE. 



NOTES. 



PART I. 

[1] " The adventurous first of Britain's sons befell." 
[Sir Hugh Willoughby.] 



PART II. 

[1] " Lo ! Asia's mingled tribes, remorseless hosts" 

" History has not recorded the annals of a people who have 
occasioned greater, more sudden, or more numerous revolutions in 
Europe than the Scandinavians, or whose antiquities, at the same 
time, are so little known. Had, indeed, their emigrations been 
only like those sudden torrents of which all traces and remem- 
brance are soon effaced, the indifference that has been shown to 
them would have been sufficiently justified by the barbarism they 
have been reproached with. But, during those general inundations, 
the face of Europe underwent so total a change, and, during the 
confusion they occasioned, such different establishments took place ; 
new societies were formed, animated so entirely with a new spirit, 
that the history of our own manners and institutions ought neces- 
sarily to ascend back, and even dwell a considerable time upon a 
period which discovers to us their chief origin and source." — 
Mallets Northern Antiquities. 

" If we recur back to the remotest times, we observe a nation 
issuing from the forests of Scythia*, incessantly increasing and 

* " There is not a vaguer term in ancient geography than that of Scythia. 
Taken in its most extensive signification, it would embrace all the countries 



140 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

dividing to take possession of the uncultivated countries which it 
met with in its progress. Very soon after, we see the same people, 
like a tree full of vigour, extending long branches over all Europe ; 
we see them also carrying with them, wherever they came, 

* * * * * a res tless, unconquered spirit, apt to take fire at 
the very mention of subjugation and constraint ; and a ferocious 
courage nourished by a savage and vagabond life.'' — Id. 

" It is very probable that the first Danes were, like all the 
other Teutonic nations, a colony of Scythians, who spread them- 
selves, at different times, over the countries which lay towards the 
west."— Id. Ch. I. 

[With regard to the practices of these barbarians], " they sig- 
nalized" (speaking of a fleet of Sea-rovers) " their approach by 
plundering, burning, killing all the men capable of bearing arms, 
and by the perpetration of all those other revolting and remorse- 
less deeds which, in those ages, invariably marked the progress of 
a band of Scandinavian freebooters." — Id. Ch. VIII. 

" How formidable soever the Scandinavians were by land to 
most of the inhabitants of Europe, it must yet be allowed that 
their maritime expeditions occasioned still more destructive ra- 
vages, and greater terror. We cannot read the history of the 
eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, without observing with surprise 
the sea covered with their vessels ; and, from one end of Europe to 
the other, the coasts of those countries, now the most powerful, 
a prey to their depredations. **■*-******* 
In fine, they no less infested the north than the south with their 
incursions, spreading everywhere desolation and terror : sometimes 
as furiously bent on their mutual destruction as on the ruin of 
other nations ; till, animated by a more pacific spirit, they trans- 
ported colonies to unknown and uninhabited countries, as if they 
were willing to repair, in one place the horrid destruction of 
human-kind occasioned by their furious ravages in others." — 
Id. Ch.IX. 

lying between the present river Don in the west, the great desert of Gobi in 
the east, the Hindoo Koch mountains on the south, and the plains of Siberia on 
the north, in which direction the bounds might be limited or extended to suit 
any particular theory, this region being for the Ancients, Terra Incognita. 

* * * * When our Author, therefore, talks of a " nation issuing from the 
forests of Scythia," he must be considered to mean, the various races of Asiastic 
origin * * * * that spread themselves over Europe at an epoch far beyond 
the bounds of authentic history, as well as others who may have " trod upon the 
heels of their fathers" at a more recent period."— Editor's Note. 

[PART II,] 



NOTES. 141 

[2] " Taught by the raven' s faithful wing to steer" 

" We are told that Floki" (a famous sea-rover who followed 
in the wake of Naddod, the discoverer of Iceland), " previous to 
setting out on his expedition, performed a great sacrifice, and, 
having consecrated three ravens to the gods, took them with him 
to guide him on his voyage. After touching at the Shetland and 
Fcero islands, he steered N. W., and when he was fairly out at 
sea, let loose one of his ravens, which, after rising to a considerable 
elevation, directed its flight to the land they had quitted ; whence 
Floki very sagely concluded that it was nearer to him than any 
other. Onward, therefore, went Floki. The second bird, after 
being some time on wing, returned to the ship, a sign that land 
was too far distant to be descried even by a raven hovering in the 
sky. Floki, therefore, continued his course, and. shortly after- 
wards, let loose a third raven, which he followed in its flight until 
he reached the eastern coast of Iceland." — Mallets Northern 
Antiquities ; Ch. IX. 

" The raven was the bird of Odin, the Raven-god — Hrqfnagad, 
as he is called in Skaldic poetry." — Id. 

" The Runic inscriptions not only confirm, in the most strik- 
ing manner, the authenticity of the Sagas relating to Greenland, 
but warrant the conclusion that those which tell us, in the same 
artless manner, of the discovery of the American continent are 
equally trustworthy, though their statements have not as yet been 
confirmed by the same kind of palpable evidence." — Id. Sup. Ch. 

[With regard to the Runic remains referred to in this passage, 
a stone, it appears, was discovered in 1824, in the island of King- 
iktorsoak (coast of Greenland), which, upon being submitted to 
eminent Runologists, bore evidence of the Scandinavians having 
explored and wintered in the Polar seas seven centuries previous 
to the celebrated expeditions of our day.'} 



[3] " Some, toss y d by tempests, in the o'ersweeping wave," 

[As one of countless instances of disaster through storm and 
shipwreck, may be noticed that of Gilbert and Raleigh's expedi- 
tion, in 1583, undertaken with a view to British-American colo- 
nization. Two unsuccessful attempts were made to carry out the 
object; the first was defeated by the cavilling of the adventurers ; 
in the second, after the destruction of one of the vessels, on the 
coast of Newfoundland, the return of another through the faint- 



142 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

heartedness of the crew, and that of a third, laden with the sick, 
the commander shaped his course homewards.] 

" Sir Humphery Gilbert stood upon the deck holding a book 
in his hand, encouraging the crew. — "We are as near to Heaven 
by sea as by land" — he called out to those on the other vessel, as 
it drifted past, just before nightfall. Darkness soon concealed 
his little bark from sight ; but, for hours, one small light was seen 
to rise and fall, and plunge about among the furious waves. 
Shortly after midnight, it suddenly disappeared, and with it all 
trace of the brave chief, and the crew. One maimed and storm- 
tossed ship alone returned to England of that armament which so 
short a time before had been sent forth to take possession of a 
new world." — Narrative of Expedition of Sir Humphery 
Gilbert. Hahluyt. Vol. III. pp. 143-159. 



[4] " Or midst fell wilds to foot of life unknown" 

"This coast appears to have been singularly barren and de- 
solate. Food, it was said, could be procured only by purloining 
from the nest of an osprey the fish collected for her young. * * 
* * Famine soon rose to such a pitch as to drive them to a 
most frightful extremity. Several of them waylaid a companion, 
killed him, and deposited his flesh in a secret place, to which they 
repaired, and, having roasted it in successive portions, eagerly fed 
upon it. * * * * The famine becoming always more cruel, 
they were at length driven to a systematic mode of carrying on 
the same horrible course, and had arranged the casting of lots to 
decide whose life should be sacrificed to save the rest, when a 
French ship appeared." — Discovery and Adventure in the Polar 
Seas and Regions. Ed. Cab. Lib. Vol. I. Ch. VI. 



[5] " A hideous scene ensues ; the Furies rise :" 

[To elucidate by modern instances the truth of sufferings here 
so inadequately pictured, we would refer to " The Narrative of a 
journey to the shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1819-20-21. 
and 22, by Captain John FranJdin, Commander of the Ex- 
pedition. — From this the following are a few extracts.] 

" While we were seated round the fire this evening, discoursing 
about the anticipated relief, the conversation was suddenly inter- 
rupted by Peltiers exclaiming with joy, "Ah! le monde!" 
imagining that he heard the Indians in the other room ; im- 

[PART II.] 



NOTES. 143 

mediately afterwards, to his bitter disappointment, Dr. Richardson 
and Hepburn entered, each carrying a bundle. Peltiers, however, 
soon recovered himself enough to express his joy at their safe 
arrival, and his regret that their companions were not with them. 
When I saw them alone, my own mind was instantly filled with 
apprehensions respecting my friend Hood, and our other com- 
panions, which were immediately confirmed by the Doctor's 
melancholy communication that Mr. Hood and Michel were dead. 
This intelligence produced a melancholy despondency in the minds of 
my party, and, on that account, the particulars were deferred until 
another opportunity. We were all shocked at beholding the 
emaciated countenances of the Doctor and Hepburn, as this 
strongly evidenced their extremely debilitated state. The alteration 
in our appearance was equally distressing to them, for since the 
swellings had subsided, we were little more than skin and bone. 
The Doctor particularly remarked the sepulchral tones of our voices, 
which he requested us to make more cheerful, if possible, un- 
conscious that his own partook of the same key." — Franklin's 
Narrative, &c. p. 446. 

" After our usual supper of singed skin and bone-soup, Dr. 
Richardson acquainted me with the afflicting circumstances at- 
tending the death of Mr. Hood and Michel, and detailed the 
occurrences subsequently to my departure from them." — Id. 
p. 448. 

" We had this evening the pain of discovering that two of our 
men had stolen part of the officer's provisions, which had been 
allotted to us with strict impartiality. This conduct was the more 
reprehensible, as it was plain that we were suffering, even in a 
greater degree than themselves, from the effects of famine, owino- 
to our being of a less robust habit, and less accustomed to priva- 
tions. We had no means of punishing this crime, but by the threat 
that they should forfeit their wages, which had now ceased to 
operate. * * * * * Our people, through despondency, had 
become careless and disobedient, and had ceased to dread punish- 
ment, or hope for reward." — Id. p. 421. 

" While we halted to consider of this subject, and to collect 
our party, the carcass of a deer was discovered in the cleft of a 
rock, into which it had fallen in the spring. It was putrid, but it 
was little less acceptable to us on that account, in our present 
circumstances ; and, a fire being kindled, a large portion of it was 



144 



AECTIC ENTEEPKISE. 



devoured on the spot, affording us an unexpected breakfast ; for, 
in order to husband our small remaining portion of meat, we had 
agreed to make only one scanty meal a day. * * * * * 
We supped on the remains of the putrid deer, and the men, hav- 
ing gone to the spot where it was found, scraped together the con- 
tents of its intestines, which were scattered on the rock, and 
added them to their meal." — Id. p. 422. 

" In the afternoon, we had a heavy fall of snow. A small 
quantity of Tripe de roche was gathered ; and Credit, who had 
been hunting, brought in the antlers and backbone of a deer 
which had been killed in the summer. The wolves and birds of 
prey had picked this clean, but there still remained a quantity of 
the spinal marrow which they had not been able to extract ; this, 
although putrid, was esteemed a valuable prize, and the spine, 
being divided into portions, was distributed equally. After eating 
the marrow, which was so acrid as to excoriate the lips, we 
rendered the bones friable by burning, and ate them also." — 
Id. p. 426. 

" We had a small quantity of this weed in the evening, and 
the rest of our supper was made up of scraps of roasted leather. 
***** Previous to setting out, the whole party ate the 
remains of their shoes, and whatever scraps of leather they had, 
to strengthen their stomachs for the fatigues of the day's journey." 
Id. p. 429. 

" There was no tripe de roche, so we drank tea, and ate some 
of our shoes for supper." — Id. p. 438. 



[6] " For such, alas! fain would the Muse forbear," 

[It were no difficult task to multiply instances of those insur- 
rections at sea, which, viewed in every light, rank amongst the 
most formidable calamities on shipboard ; in the Polar seas more 
especially, where Nature is sufficiently ungentle, without the 
aggravating evil of rebellion on the part of the crew. 

Behring, in his last and fatal voyage through the straits that 
bear his name, had to encounter the insubordination of his ship's 
company, in addition to the fearful distresses arising from want 
and despair, and that terrible disease, the scurvy, which eventually 
destroyed him. In early north-western discovery, Weymouth, 
during a tempest, perhaps the most terrible recorded in Arctic 
chronicles, was compelled to give way to mutiny : At an earlier 

[PAST II.] 



NOTES. 



145 



period, in the same seas, Davis was abandoned by one of his 
ships at a moment the most critical, and in the other (a small 
bark of thirty tons) continued his course alone through appalling 
difficulties. Lastly, Hudson, thrust forth by a merciless band of 
ruffians, naked and unprovided, amidst deserts of rock and snow. 
Our own times present but few instances : there is better 
discipline : Officers the bravest, but perhaps, under the trying 
circumstances attendant on Arctic adventure, more conciliatory 
more morally, more inwardly brave, and crews of the same temper. 
With the affecting narrative of the " Mutiny of the Bounty," 
everyone is conversant ; and no reader of modern poetry but has 
dwelt, spell- bound, over "The Island."] 

" Fiercely beside thy cot the mutineer 
Stands, and proclaims the reign of rage and fear. 
Thy limbs are bound, the bayonet at thy breast, 
The hands, which trembled at thy voice, arrest ; 
Dragged o'er the deck, no more at thy command 
The obedient helm shall veer, the sail expand. — 
* * * * * * # 

In vain, not silenced by the eye of death, 
Thou call'st the loyal with thy menaced breath : — 
They come not ; they are few, and overawed, 
Must acquiesce, while sterner hearts applaud. 
In vain thou dost demand the cause ; a curse 
Is all the answer, with the threat of worse : 
Full in their eyes is waved the glittering blade, 
Close to thy throat the pointed bayonet laid ; 
The levell'd muskets circle round thy breast 
In hands as steel'd to do the deadly rest." 

Byron. 



[T] "Lo! onward as he toils, a struggling form" 

[In Parry's interesting journals, there occur many passages 
descriptive of the utter desolation that characterizes Polar scenery, 
and of the emotions such scenery is calculated to awaken. The 
following will be remembered by all who have read those journals, 
and such as have not will be amply repaid for a perusal.] 

" The officers, who dined at two o'clock, were also in the habit 
of occupying one or two hours in the middle of the day in ram- 
bling on shore, even in our darkest period, except when a fresh 

L 



146 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

wind and a heavy snow-drift confined them within the housing 
of the ships. It may be well imagined that, at this period, there 
was but little to be met with in our walks on shore that could 
either amuse or instruct us. ********** 
* * * •* Not an object was to be seen on which the eye 
could long rest with pleasure, unless when directed to the spot 
where the ships lay, and where our little colony was planted. The 
smoke which there issued from the several fires, affording a certain 
indication of the presence of man, gave a partial cheerfulness to 
this part of the prospect ; and the sound of voices, which, during 
the cold weather, could be heard at a much greater distance than 
usual, served now and then to break the silence which reigned 
around us ; a silence far different from that peaceable composure 
which characterizes the landscape of a cultivated country ; it was 
the death-like stillness of the most dreary desolation, and the 
total absence of animated existence. ******** 
Dreary as such a scene must necessary be, it could not, 
however, be said to be wholly wanting in interest, especially when 
associated in the mind with the peculiarity of our situation, the 
object which had brought us hither, and the hopes, which the 
least sanguine among us sometimes entertained, of spending a 
part of our next summer in the more genial climate of the 
South-Sea Islands. Perhaps, too, though none of us then 
ventured to confess it, our thoughts would sometimes involun- 
tarily wander homewards, and institute a comparison between 
the rugged face of nature in this desolate region, and the livelier 
aspect of the happy land which we had left behind us." — 
Journal of Voyage for Discovery of North-west Passage, in 
1819-20, by W. E. Parry, B.N. Commander of the Expedition. 



[8] " Consigned to fate each unavailing care" 

[The cairn of stones, or some other beacon less durable, has 
frequently been raised by the dying, or over the dead, in these 
desolate wilds. In the one case a last instinctive effort to attract 
succour ; in the other, a monument sufficiently affecting.] 



[9] " O'er the lulVd sense delicious languors creep," 

[To the victim of extreme frost the approaches of death are 
said to be so pleasing as to appear almost desirable, compared with 
the rigours of a Polar climate. The King of terrors here assumes 

[PART II.] 



NOTES. 147 

the attributes of a Siren, whose charm becomes irresistibly per- 
suasive. The change is wrought in sleep ; and into whatever 
state that change might eventually lead, the transition, at least, 
is painless.] 



[10] " Of some, whose fate the Muse might yet unfold" 

[See Narrative of Hudson's last and deplorably-fatal voyage for 
the discovery of a North-west passage. — BundalVs North-west 
Voyages, &c] 



PART III. 



[1] *' Regions, whose wild creation seems forgot;'"' 

" When once the earth is covered, all is dreary, monotonous 
whiteness. ***** Whichever way the eye is turned, 
it meets a picture calculated to impress upon the mind an idea of 
inanimate stillness, of that motionless torpor with which our 
feelings have nothing congenial; of anything, in short, but life. 
In the very silence there is a darkness with which a human 
spectator appears out of keeping. The presence of man seems an 
intrusion on the dreary solitude of this wintry desert, which even 
its native animals have for a while forsaken." — Parry's Third 
Voyage for Discovery of North-west Passage, Ch. III. 



[2] " Or Runic stone in rude memorial told " 

" The necessity of assisting the memory led them" (the Scandi- 
navians) " early to invent a kind of Calendars, which they called 
Runic Staffs. These were a sort of compendious almanacks, 
marked out by lines upon short pieces of wood, or smooth sticks. 
Some of them bear the appearance of great antiquity." — MalleVs 
Northern Antiquities, Ch XL, p. 220. 

"One cannot travel far in Denmark, Norway, or Sweden, 
without meeting with great stones, of different forms, engraved 
with those ancient characters called Runic*." — Id. p. 221. 

"The use of Runic letters for more purposes" (i. e. than 



[* Run ic inscriptions are also found in England] 



148 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Sorcery*) " became by degrees more common in the North. In 
the latter ages of Paganism, they were frequently used for in- 
scriptions." — Id. p. 227. 

" Upwards of a thousand Runic Inscriptions have been dis- 
covered in Sweden, and three or four thousand in Denmark and 
Norway."— Id. 228. 



[3] " Less luckless Tie, (as Record's scrolls relate,)" 

" According to the Scandinavian Sagas, a celebrated Sea-rover, 
named Naddod, during a voyage to the Foero Islands, about the 
year 860, was driven by a violent storm on an island, to which, 
from the vast quantity of snow he observed, he gave the name of 
Snowland. This island was afterwards visited successively by two 
Swedes, Gardar Svafason and Floki, by whom the name was 
changed to that which it has ever since retained, Island or 
Iceland." — Shillinglaw 's Narrative of Arctic Discovery. 



[4] " Yet little heeds he, ichere those mists appear," 

[From a narrative of the voyages of Hudson, the following is 
extracted, as equally illustrative of the scene at earlier periods.] 

"On the 11th May, he descried the eastern part of Iceland^ 
and was enveloped in a thick south fog ; hearing the sea dashing 
against the coast without seeing it. He was thus obliged to come 
to anchor ; but, as soon as the weather cleared, he proceeded west- 
ward along the coast till he reached Snow-Hill (Snaefell), which 
rears its awful brow above the sea that leads to the frozen shores 
of Greenland. On their way the navigators saw Hecla, the 
volcano of which was then in activity, vomiting torrents of fire 
down its snowy sides, with smoke ascending to the sky." — Polar 
Seas and Regions, Ch. VI. 



[5] " To found on shores of frost Norwegian homes." 

" Iceland herself was able, after the progress of about a 
century, to send out likewise her colonies." — (See Note 1, Part 
IV.) — Polar Seas and Regions, Ch. I. 

"Numerous bodies of emigrants proceeded successively to Ice- 
land, where they were organised into a free and independent com- 



[* The Runic characters are said to have been invented by Odin, and first 
employed by that great impostor for the purposes of sorcery.] 

[PART III.] 



NOTES. 149 

munity. They even crossed to the opposite coast of Greenland, 
and formed settlements, which for some time were tolerably 
flourishing, though they have since either perished, or lost all com- 
munication with Iceland." — Id. Ch. III. 



[6] " And Odin kindles all his ancient fire." 

[The Scandinavian Sea-kings and heroes assumed a descent 
from their divinities ; a modest pedigree enough for such worthies.] 

" A celebrated tradition, confirmed by the poems of all the 
northern nations, by their chronicles, by institutions and customs, 
some of which subsist to this day, informs us that an extraordinary 
person, named Odin*, formerly reigned in the North; that he 
made great changes in the government, manners, and religion of 
those countries ; that he enjoyed there great authority, and had 
even divine honours paid. As to what regards the origin of this 
man, the country from whence he came, the time in which he 
lived, and the other circumstances of his life and death, they are 
so uncertain that the most profound researches, the most ingenious 
conjectures, about them, discover nothing to us but our own 
ignorance.'' — Mallets Northern Antiquities, Ch. III. 

" Odin, having united under his banners the youth of the 
neighbouring nations, marched towards the north and west of 
Europe, subduing, we are told, all the people he found in his 
passage, and giving them to one or other of his sons for subjects. 
Many sovereign families of the North are said to be descended 
from those princes. Thus Horsa and Hengist, the chiefs of those 
Saxons who conquered Britain in the fifth century, counted Odin 
or Wodin, in the number of their ancestors ; it was the same with 
the other Anglo-Saxon princes, as well as the greatest part of 
those of Lower Germany and the North. * * * * * * * 
* •* * # •\\r e k n ow also that it was customary with all the 
heroes of these nations to speak of themselves as sprung from 
their divinities, especially their god of war" — Id 



[7] " And piled her barren cliffs with British spoil." 

" The unfavourable report which these adventurers" (Gardar 



[* He is supposed to have come over with the Scythians about the time when 
the Roman power was first menaced by those northern hordes that finally over- 
whelmed it. He assumed the name of Odin, who was the superior divinity 
among the Teutonic nations.] 



150 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

Svafason and Floki) " gave of the climate of Iceland, on their 
return, was probably the reason that no attempt was made to 
colonize it till the year 874, when Ingolf, and his brother-in-law, 
Lief or Hiorlief, two famous Norwegian adventurers, after com- 
mitting dreadful ravages on the English coasts, set sail with 
their plunder to the northern seas, and planted a colony on its 
bleak and barren shores.'''' — Shillinglaw's Narrative, &c. 



[8] " The galling yoke of Nonoay's tyranny" 

" The colony thus formed speedily rose into importance, and 
many noble families, who would not tamely submit to the ambi- 
tious encroachments of Harald Harfagra, the "fair-haired" king and 
conqueror of Norway, retired thither for refuge, and, for four 
hundred years, resisted all attempts made by various Norwegian 
princes to subvert them." — Shillinglaw 's Narrative, &c. 



[9] " Held the wide deep in undisputed sway." 

"After the North had ceased to send forth her numerous 
swarms upon the fertile province of the Roman empire, the Scan- 
dinavian nations, prompted by their peculiar situation, betook 
themselves to a life of maritime adventure. These bold and 
hardy pirates visited every sea, and pillaged, during a course of 
nearly three hundred years, all the coasts of Europe, from the 
extremity of Scotland to the shores of Sicily. During the first 
half of the ninth century, they conquered the Orkneys, the Shet- 
land and Western Isles, obtained possession of Ireland, plundered 
England and France, and extended their ravages to Italy. In 
876, the Northmen or Normands extorted from the weakness of 
the Friench king the cession of the fine province of Neustria, 
where they quietly settled; while another party of these fierce 
invaders had occupied the fertile coast of Estbonia, on the south 
side of the Baltic." — Polar Seas and Regions, Ch. I. 



[10] " Lost in herself, a boundless waste of snow." 

" This coast is everywhere bold and rocky like that of Norway ; 
and the interior of the country consists of clustering, lofty moun- 
tains, covered with eternal snow." — Polar Seas and Regions, 
Ch. I. 

" We left this coast " (Northern Spitzbergen) " on the 22nd 
July, and steered for the eastern shores of Greenland, of which 

[PART III.] 



NOTES. 151 

we came in sight on the 5th August. The scene appeared the 
most desolate we had ever beheld. The mountains rose to the 
height of several thousand feet, without a vestige of vegetation, or 
the appearance of any living creature on the earth or in the air. 
Even the dreary waste of Spitzbergen appeared a paradise to this." 
— Id. Ch. VIII. Voyage of Clavering. 



[1 1] " And Winter, stretch 'd continuous to the Pole" 

" On the 27th June, the navigators found themselves in the 
latitude of the southern part of Spitzbergen, without any appear- 
ance either of ice or land. On the 29th, they saw the shore, and 
stood close in with it. This coast appeared to be neither habitable 
nor accessible; for it was formed of high, barren, black rocks, 
without the least mark of vegetation ; in many places bare and 
pointed ; in other parts covered with snow, appearing even above 
the clouds ; the valleys between the high, cliffs were filled with 
snow and ice.'' — Polar Seas, &c. Ch. VIII, Voyages of Phipps 
and Lutwidge. 

" Captain Lutwidge, on mounting the top of a high island, saw 
to the east and north-east one continued frozen surface, bounded 
only by the horizon." — Id. Ch. VIII. 

" The result of this voyage, which was considered as having 
been made under fair and even favourable circumstances, tended 
altogether to chill the hopes of penetrating nearer to the great 
northern boundaries of the earth. It seemed that, from the 
eightieth degree, ice in one unbroken field stretched to the Pole" 
—Id. Ch. VIII. 



[12] " In one vast gulf entombed ; — a nation's dead ! " 

" The position of this unknown shore has been a subject of 
controversy ; and some have even had recourse to the hypothesis of 
its having been swallowed up by the ocean." — Polar Seas, &c. 
Ch. III. 

[In Hakluyt's " Divers Voyages touching the Discoverie of 
America,' 1 '' there is a curious chapter entitled, " The discoverie of 
the Isles of Frisland, Engroueland, Estotiland, JDrogeo, and 
Icaria, made by M. Nicolo Zeno, Knight, and M. Antonio, his 
brother ;" from this the following are extracts.] 

[After describing this Venetian (Nicolo Zeno) as " a man of 
great courage and very nobly minded," the historian speaks of him 



152 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



as entering] — " into a wonderful great desire and fansie to see the 
fashions of the worlde, and to travaile, and to acquaint himself 
with the manners of sundry nations, and learne their languages, 
whereby afterwards vpon occasions hee might be ye better able 
to do service to his country, and purchase to himselfe credite and 
honor. Wherefore hee caused a shippee to be made, and having 
furnished her at his proper charges (as he was very wealthie), hee 
departed out of our seas, and passing the Straites of Gibralterra, 
he sayled for certaine dayes vpon the ocean, keeping his course 
stil to ye northwards, wt intent to see Englaund and Flaunders. 
Where, being assaulted in those seas by a terrible tempest, was so 
tossed for the space of so many dayes with the sea and winde, 
that hee knewe not where hee was, till at length hee discovered 
lande, and not beeing able any longer to sustaine the violence of 
the tempest, the ship was cast away vpon the isle of Frisland.'' 

[After settling safely in this island (wherever it lay) and re- 
ceiving the favour of the ruling prince, Zichmni, Nicolo wrote to 
his brother Antonio, with an invitation to come and join him.] 
" Wherefore hee, who had as great desire to travaile as his brother, 
bought a ship, and directing his course that way, after hee had 
sayled a great while, and escaped many dangers, hee arrived at 
length in safetie with M. Nicolo, who received him very ioyfully, 
for that he was his brother, not only in flesh and blood, but also in 
valour and good qualities." 

[These brothers grew into such favour with Zichmni, that 
Nicolo was appointed " Captaine of his Navie;'' and expeditions 
for the discovery of other islands were the result. Of these, 
Engroueland and Estotiland seem to have been the principal ; the 
former is described by Hakluyt as being cold and uninviting in 
the extreme; for an account of the latter (Estotiland), we will 
2:0 to his own narrative. It should, however, be stated that 
Nicolo, after the discovery of Engroueland, " not being vsed and 
acquainted with these cruele coldes," had returned to Frisland, 
where he died. Upon this, his brother Antonio succeeded to all 
his honours, and was employed by Prince Zichmni for further 
discovery. It would appear that some of Zichmni's fishermen had, 
many years previously, discovered "certaine Ilandes verye rich 
and populous."] * " Six and twentie yeeres agoe there departed foure 

[* This -was part substance of a letter written by Antonio to- a third brother 
(Carlo) after the death of Nicolo.] 

[part III.] 



NOTES. 153 

fisher boates, the which, a mightie tempest arising, were tossed 
fcr the space of manye dayes verye desperately upon the sea, when 
at length, the tempeste ceassying and the weather waxing fayre, 
they discovered an Hand called Estotiland, lying to the west- 
wardes above a thousand miles from Frisland." 

[By permission of the Lord of the Island, they dwelt here five 
years, and one of them, who "was in divers parts of the Hand," 
reported that it was " a verye riche countrey, abounding with all 
the commodities of the worlde." Further, that " they have 
mines of all manner of metalls, but especially they abound in 
gold ; they sowe corne, and make bere and ale, which is a kind of 
drinke that the north people doe vse as we doe wine. They have 
mightie great woods ; they make their buildings with wals, and 
there are many cities and castles," and so on ; the remaining dis- 
coveries were Drogeo and Icaria*. Whether these islands, taken 
collectively, constituted that Atlantis which has been called 
" The Sunken Land," remains yet to be proved.] 



[13] " Where Friesland's wave-subjected deserts 

[From a recent work we quote the following as one of the 
many traditionary wonders attaching to this charmed spot in the 
Atlantic] 

" Over this sunken land it was that the famous navigator, 
Magnus Henningsen, sent out by Frederick the 2nd, in 1578, was 
arrested in his expedition to Greenland. For days he tried to 
push on ; but his ships remained stationary in one spot, unable to 
move. Finding his endeavours of progressing fruitless, he was 
under the necessity of shifting his course homewards ; and, on 
his return, his excuse for his want of success was, that, stopped by 
the magnetic powers of the sunken rock — which had for days held 
him spell-bound to one spot, — he considered it wrong to dare 
further the power of the deep. 

Mystery hangs over this spot. Whalers have wound around 
it a charm pleasing to the imagination, and seductive to the fancy ; 
over it the waters unceasingly and constantly wash ; and few sea- 
men are hardy enough to trust themselves to the hidden dangers 
and perils that surround it. Some old mariners will tell you that, 
on a fine night, with a fresh breeze blowing, a kind of light may 



[* From Icarus, said to be the son of Dedalus, king of Scots.] 



154 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

be seen in the skies, resembling distant smoke arising from the 
waters, which, like an ignis fatuus, precedes the ship in her course, 
vanishing, as distance decreases, into thin and empty air. The 
decks of these ships, the next day, will be found strewed with 
fine sparkling sand, impalpable to the touch, and possessing 
qualities differing from sand generally." — Arctic Miscellanies, 
Ch. I. 



[14] " Or Fcero, lonely midst an ocean's roar." 

"In 964, the Normans conquered the Orkney and Shetland 
Islands, and the north of Scotland ; in 861, they discovered and 
settled the Fsero Isles ; and in 874, Ingolf and Hiorleif led a Nor- 
man colony to the barren shores of Iceland." — Arctic Miscellanies, 
Ch. V. 

" Many chieftains, seeing themselves thus stripped of their pos- 
sessions, retired into Iceland, the Orkneys, the Isles of Fsero and 
Shetland, and thence, covering the sea with their vessels, infested 
all the coasts of Scandinavia, where, for many years, there was no 
sailing with any safety." — Mallets Northern Antiquities. 



PART IV. 

[1] "-Far other famed, Norwegian Eirek shone," 

" Thorwald, a proud and opulent Norwegian chief, who had 
been lately banished thither "(i. e. to Iceland) "for some murder 
committed by him, soon died in exile, leaving his wealth and his 
restless spirit to his son, Eirek Raude, or the Red. This youth, 
actuated by the same vengeful passions, killed one of his neigh- 
bours in a fight, and was obliged to withdraw himself from Ice- 
land for the space of three years. In 982, Eirek sailed in quest of 
adventure and discovery. Instructed by the reports of former navi- 
gators, he directed his course towards the southwest, and, after a 
quick run, discovered two lofty mountains, the one covered with 
snow, and the other cased with ice, which he called Huitserken 
and BlaaserJcen, or the White Shirt and the Blue Shirt, and 
soon reached a headland which he doubled ; and having entered a 
spacious creek, he spent the winter in a pleasant adjacent island. 
In the following season, pursuing his discoveries, he explored the 
continent, and was delighted with the freshness and verdure of the 
coast."— Polar Seas and Regions, Ch. I. 

[PART III.] 



NOTES. 155 

[Such was Greenland. The name appears to have been chosen 
by this outlaw, Eirek, as a decoy to induce others to settle there : 
and two great Settlements were subsequeutly formed, — viz. Vestre 
Bygd and Oestre Bygd (the Western and Eastern), though what 
became of them ultimately, remains a secret. Some writers con- 
jecture that they were destroyed through irruptions of the Esqui- 
maux (Shroelings, i. e, dwarfs, as those tribes were called) ; others 
suppose that the pirates of the northern seas exterminated them ; 
while many contend that a pestilence in 1348, called the Black 
Death, swept off such of the population as had escaped massacre 
by the Esquimaux.] — (See for further, Mallet's Northern Anti- 
quities, Supplementary Ch. I.) 

[Superstition, ever busy in mysteries, has likewise her tale to tell.] 
" Tremendous stories are told of the east coast of Greenland 
being now tenanted by giants and stalking ghosts. For more than 
a century past, the court of Denmark has, at different times, 
despatched ships to search after its lost colony, which, evidently 
under the impression of superstitious awe, found it impossible to 
penetrate on that enchanted coast further than Cape Discord, in the 
latitude of 61°." — Polar Seas, &c. Ch. I. 



[2] " Bettered the instruction of his savage sire." 

" The villainy you teach me I will execute ; and it shall go 
hard, but I will better the instruction." — Shakespeare. 



[3] " Benignant nursed, and in the adventurous Lief" 

" In the year 999, Lief, son of Eirek Raude, having visited 
the court of Norway, was induced, by the zealous and earnest soli- 
citations of King Olaf Tryggeson, to embrace the Christian Faith ; 
and, carrying with him some monks, he found, through their mi- 
nistry, no great difficulty in persuading his father and the rest of 
the settlers" (in Greenland) " to forsake the rites of paganism." — 
Polar Seas, &c. Ch. I. 



[4] " One fond enthusiast yet upon the scene." 

[One Bjarni (son of Hirjulf, who had gone with Eirek to 
Greenland), and subsequently again, Lief, had prosecuted some 
expeditions along the American coast, which led to the discovery 
of Helluland (probably Newfoundland), Merk* or Markland, 

[* From Mork, a wood or thicket.] 



] 56 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

(Nova Scotia), and finally Yinland, land of the vine (probably 
New England, about Mussachussetts). These discoveries were 
followed up by Thorwald, a brother of Lief, in 1002, who was 
killed in an engagement with the Esquimaux, and] — " not long 
after this, Thorstein, the third son of Eirek the Red, set sail 
* * * * * * with, the intention of bringing home his brother's 
body ; but, after being tossed about the whole summer by adverse 
winds, they were driven at the beginning of winter into Lysuf- 
jord.*" — [Here, it would appear, Thorstein perished.] — See for 
further, Mallets North. Antiquities. Supp. Ch. I. 



[5] " To seek in desert seas the inglorious grave." 

" Contrasting this new country with the dark rocks of Iceland, 
he bestowed on it the nattering appellation of Greenland ; and on 
his return, invited Settlers to join him, by circulating the most 
glowing and exaggerated descriptions. With twenty-Jive vessels 
he sailed back again ; but of these only fourteen reached their 
destination." — Polar Seas, &c. Ch. I. 



[6] "From Greenland's cliffs, or Cherie 1 s lonely shore" 

[Cherie, the Bear Island of Barentz. In 1603, Stephen Ben- 
net, who commanded the " Godspeed" (a vessel equipped by Alder- 
man Sir Francis Cherie, of London), made, as he imagined, the 
first discovery of this island, and from obvious motives, gave it the 
name of Cherie Island.] 

[7] " Struck Cambrian Madoc from his rash career ;" 

" The deepest obscurity still envelopes everything connected 
with a voyage to the American Continent said to have been made 
in the year 1170, by Madoc, Prince of Wales, son of Owen 
Gwynedd." — See Sir James Alexander's L'Acadie. Shilling- 
law's Narrative, &c. 

" Ohthere, a chief who had come from the upper tracts of Nor- 
way, afforded some intelligence even respecting a voyage under- 
taken along the Arctic shores of Europe. * * * * * * * 
Eired by a spirit of liberal research, he undertook a voyage to dis- 
cover the regions which lay to the north of the high latitude in 
which his domain was situated." — Polar Seas, &c. Ch. III. 



[* Supposed to be Issortok Creek, east coast of Baffin's Bay.] 

[PART IV.] 



NOTES. 157 

[During this expedition, Ohtbere, who was engaged in the 
maritime service of Alfred the Great, rounded the North Cape (the 
most northerly point of Europe), and reached the mouth of the river 
Kola in Lapland ; some writers take him to the White Sea, but 
this is disputed ; the most probable hypothesis being, that he pene- 
trated no further than the coast of Russian Lapland.] 



[8] " To trace what course the inquiring Pytheas held ;" 

[In going back to the first source of maritime northern disco- 
very, we should arrive probably at the remote shores of the Medi- 
terranean. Himilco, a Carthaginian, appears, according to ancient 
history, to have found his way along the coasts of Spain and 
Trance westerly, and even the shores of Britain. Among the 
Greeks, a famous navigator was Pytheas, a citizen of Marseilles, at 
that time a Greek colony. After passing the straits (Gibraltar) 
and the western coasts of France and Spain — ] " He seems to have 
directed his course through the English channel, and along the 
eastern coasts of England and Scotland, till he reached the northern 
extremity of the Island. Not content with this achievement, he 
continued to sail onwards into the depths of ocean, till in six days 
he arrived at Thule, an island, where, it appeared to him, that 
perpetual light reigned at midsummer through the day and night. 
Immediately beyond, his progress was arrested by a barrier of a 
peculiar nature, by something that was neither earth, air, nor 
sky, tut a compound of all three, through which it was impos- 
sible to penetrate. — Polar Seas, &c. Ch. III. 



[9] " Where that Venetian Pilot found his fate;" 
[Nicolo Zeno.— See, Note 12, Part III.] 

[10] " No more the pilot, uninstructed still," 

" The obscurity that envelopes the early voyages to the frozen 
regions of the North, would require far more space to investigate 
thoroughly than our pages afford. We will, therefore, pass at once 
to that period in the history of discovery and research in the polar 
regions, after the invention of the Mariner's Compass had entirely 
changed the face of maritime affairs ; when the ravens, to whose 
powerful wing the daring Sea-kings were wont to trust in their 
voyages of exploration, were left to rest quietly at home : — " 

" The. light of the stars, the guidance of the sea-coast were no 
longer necessary; trusting to the mysterious powers of his new 



158 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

friend, the sailor steered out fearlessly into the ocean, through the 
bewildering mists or the darkness of the night." — Shillinglaw 's 
Narrative. 



[11] " Sage bird, the instinctive raven stemm'd the night.' 
[See Notes 2, Part II and 10, Part IV.] 



[12] " There comes a Spirit from far Indian seas:" 

[The powers of the compass had been known and employed in 
Cathay (China) many ages prior to its introduction into Europe. 
According to Vasco de Gama, the pilots of the Indian seas had 
long been expert in its use.] 



[13] "Dark Power! that awfd Wanderer of the main;" 

" In the latter part of his life, when impressed with the 
sublime events brought about through his agency, Columbus 
looked back upon his course with a solemn and superstitious 
feeling ; he attributed his early and irresistible inclination for the 
sea, and his passion for geographical studies, to an impulse from 
the Deity, preparing him for the high decrees he was chosen tc 
accomplish." — Life and Voyages of Columbus, by Washington 
Irving, Ch. I. 



[14] " Or that great Pilot, whose adventurous rage"' 

[The Florentines have long set up a claim for their citizen, 
Amerigo Vespucci, as the earliest discoverer of the southern 
continent of America. This claim, asserted and re-asserted in 
the presence of the clearest evidence in favour of Columbus, has 
been the source of much acrimonious feeling among the learned 
in Florence, with whom there seems to have been cherished the 
ignoble wish to underrate that, which, as Washington Irving firmly 
observes,] — " is a name consecrated in history, and is no longer the 
property of a city, or a state, or a nation, but of the whole world." 
[It appears, indeed, unquestionable that Columbus was the first 
who set foot fairly on the shores of the Western World, though, 
as the above writer remarks,] " The European who first reached 
the main land of the New World was, most probably, Sebastian 
Cabot, a native of Venice,* sailing in the employ of Englandf. 

[* Or more correctly speaking, an Englishman, born at Bristol, about the year 
1467, son of John Cabot, or Kabotto, who -was a native of Venice.] 

[f May not there be yet a prior claim ? It appears indisputable that the 
Scandinavian Sea-kings had reached the American shores ages previously.] 

[PART IV.] 



NOTES. 159 

In 1497, he coasted its shores from Labrador to Florida ; yet the 
English have never set up any pretensions on his account." — Life 
and Voyages of Columbus. Appendix, No. X. 



[15] " Or Polo, Tie, the Pilgrim of the East" 

[It would appear from Mr. Marsden's " Travels of Marco 
Polo" as well as from other authorities, that] — " there does not 
exist in Venice" (or elsewhere) " any representation of this cele- 
brated traveller that can lay claim to originality or antiquity." 
[This is the more to be lamented, for, as a modern writer remarks] 
" The fame of all the old travellers, great as it deservedly is in 
many instances, is eclipsed by that of Marco Polo. * * * * 

* * * At present, neither the tomb of Nicolo (his father) nor 
Marco, can be found at Venice. — Penny Magazine, Art. Old 
Travellers. 

[Marco Polo was born in Venice about the middle of the 
thirteenth century. Setting aside information he has afforded 
respecting regions even now but little known in Europe, and 
which has been confirmed by the testimony of more recent 
travellers, the introduction into his native seas of a benefit so 
great as that of the mariner's compass, is itself sufficient to 
establish the claim of this extraordinary man to the gratitude of 
posterity. The invention of this treasure to the seaman is 
ascribed to the East.] " And Gilbert, in his book, " de Magnote," 
affirms that Marco Polo, a Venetian, making a journey to China, 
brought back the invention with him, in 1260. What strengthens 
this conjecture is, that at first they used the compass in the same 
manner as the Chinese still do ; viz. letting it float on a small 
piece of cork instead of suspending it on a pivot." — Encyclopcedia 
Londinensis, Art. Compass. 

[Respecting the desert of Kobi, or Gobi, the following obser- 
vations occur in the Narrative of Mr. Bell, who crossed it in 1720.] 
" We soon entered the desert, commonly named by the Mongalls 
The Hungry Desert. * * * * * * The country was 
quite level, and appeared to the eye as plain as the sea. * * * 

* * * The variety of objects in this dreary waste are so few, 
that, in this, as well as in other respects, it much resembles the 
sea."— J?cK's Travels, Vol. I, p. 316-30. 

" It is asserted as a well-known fact that this desert is the 
abode of many evil spirits, which amuse travellers to their des- 



160 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

traction with most extraordinary illusions. * * * * * * 
* * * Marvellous indeed, and almost passing belief, are the 
stories related of these spirits of the desert, which are said, at 
times, to fill the air with the sounds of all kinds of musical in- 
struments, and also of drums and the clash of arms." — Marsderts 
Travels of Marco Polo, Book I, Ch. 35. 



[16] Bold Gama braved the elemental war ;" 

[It was through the interprising genius of Prince Henry of 
Portugal, that the first great impulse was given to adventurous 
daring by sea (at least with the Portuguese). At this period] — 
" The compass was also brought into more general use, especially 
among the Portuguese, rendering the mariner more bold and 
venturous, by enabling him to navigate in the most gloomy day, 
and in the darkest night. *********** 
********* Henry died on the 13th November, 
1473, without accomplishing the great object of his ambition." 
[viz. the circumnavigation of Africa, and attainment of India.] 

" It was not until many years afterwards that Vasco de Gama, 
pursuing with a Portuguese fleet the track he had pointed out, 
realized his anticipations by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, 
sailing along the southern coast of India, and thus opening a 
highway for commerce to the opulent regions of the East." — Life 
and Voyage of Columbus, Ch. III. 



[17] " Two Brother-chiefs (illustrious name of old;)"" 

[Of these brothers, the elder, Gaspar de Cortereal, following 
the track opened up by Cabot in the North-west, sailed in the 
year 1500, from Portugal : Touching at the Azores, he took in 
provisions, &c. and proceeded thence to a coast named by him 
Terra Verde (not Greenland, as its name would seem to imply, 
but Labrador), and marked in an old map, in 1508, Terra Cor- 
terealis. Returning from this first expedition with a tumid account 
of his discoveries, and a sample of the natives (seven in one 
caravel and fifty in another) with recommendations of their tribes 
to his Royal Master, as slaves, Gaspar, in 1501, departed on a 
second, and was never again heard of.] 

" A similar dark and unhappy fate befell his brother, Michael 
de Cortereal, who sailed with two ships in search of his lost 
relative, but of whom no accounts ever again reached Portugal. 

[PART IV.] 



XOTES. 161 

The most probable conjecture seems to be that both fell victims 
to the just indignation of the natives, whose wives, children, and 
fathers, had been stolen away during their first visit to the coast." 
— Historical View of the Progress of Discovery on the more 
Northern Coasts of America, by Patrick Frazer Tytler. 

[In 1503, Portugal sent out two armed ships in search of the 
Cortereals, but no tidings of them were ever obtained ; and the 
province of Terra Verde, upon whose shores they had most pro- 
bably perished, was named from them Terra Corterealis.] 



[18] " Thine the bold effort, Barentz! — the renoivn"* 

[After the fatal failure of our own countryman, Sir Hugh 
Willoughby, followed by the expedition of Burroughs, in 1556, 
and that of Pet and Jackman, in 1580, each alike unsuccessful, 
a private company of Dutch merchants despatched a small squadron 
under the direction of William Barentz, one of the most practical 
pilots of that day. This first expedition, undertaken with the 
view of working out a north-east passage to Cathay (China), pro- 
duced no result beyond that of inflaming the hopes of the Dutch 
Government ; six vessels were now fitted out with great cost and 
parade, and actually laden with merchandise for the East ; yet 
of all the armaments of the time, none issued less favourably. 

In the narrow passage of Waygatz Island, between Nova 
Zembla and the mainland, at the entrance to the Sea of Kara, 
they were beset with masses of ice, and forced homewards. The 
people of Holland, however, were not dispirited, and a third 
expedition was equipped, consisting of two vessels only, under the 
guidance of Barentz and Corneliz Ryp. Some differences occur- 
ring between the commanders as to the shaping of their course, they 
determined to pursue each his respective plan. The track followed 
by Barentz led that great adventurer into a series of difficulties 
terrible almost beyond belief. After a long winter, including 
three months of continuous darkness, passed under the most 
frightful privations, in the climate of Nova Zembla, the com- 
mander and a remnant of his crew were compelled to abandon the 
vessel, and urge a homeward course in the two boats yet at their 
disposal.] 

" At length, having embarked all their clothes and provisions, 
they set sail on the 14th of June, with a westerly breeze. In 
the three following days, having passed the Cape of Isles, and 

M 



162 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



Cape Desire (Zelania), they came to Orange Isle, always working 
their way through much encumbering ice. When they were off 
Icy Cape, Barentz, who had long been struggling with severe illness, 
feeling his end approach, desired that he might be lifted up to take 
a last view of that fatal promontory, on which he gazed for a con- 
siderable time." — Polar Seas, &c. Ch. IV; see also Burners 
North-east Voyages. 

[On the following day, the boats were obstructed by drift-ice.] 
" During this detention, Barentz, being informed of the severe ill- 
ness of one of the men, named Adrianson, said that he himself was 
not far from his end. As he continued, however, conversing, and 
looking on a chart of the voyage, made by Be Veer, it was thought 
that his disease could not be so serious, till he pushed aside the 
paper, asked for a draught of water, and instantly expired." — 
Id. dec. 



19] " Behring, the Dane; where lone Alaska's shore" 

[Captain Vitus Behring (a Dane by birth, though engaged in 
the service of Eussia) was the officer intrusted with the command 
of an expedition sent out by Russia to set at rest the question of 
the junction of the continents of Asia and America in the north- 
east. The renowned Peter the Great appears to have been the first 
to cherish this object, drawing up with his own hand the necessary 
instructions. The officer appointed to carry out these instructions 
was Admiral Apraxin ; but the death of Peter having occurred 
before the expedition set sail, the Empress Catharine, participating 
in the views of her predecessor, made immediate arrangements for 
the accomplishment of them. Associated with Behring in this 
new enterprise, were two Lieutenants, Spangberg and Tchirikow. 
Upon the failure of the first voyage, a second was undertaken ; 
and this, though fatal to the commander, Behring, established yet 
his fame imperishably. The misery into which these crews were 
plunged has been vividly depicted by Steller, a naturalist who ac- 
companied the expedition.] 

" The general distress and mortality," says this writer, " in- 
creased so fast, that not only the sick died, but those who still 
struggled to be numbered on the healthy list, when relieved from 
their posts, fainted and fell down dead, of which the scantiness of 
water, the want of biscuits and brandy, cold, wet, nakedness, ver- 

[PART IV.] 



NOTES. 163 

min, fear and terror, were not the least causes." — Tytler's His- 
torical View, &c. Ch. II. 

[Let it suffice to add that, after a series of fearful sufferings 
they were thrown on an island, where Behring fell, at length, a 
victim to want and disease.] 

"This voyage, however, set at rest the disputed point regarding 
the separation of the two Continents of Asia and America ; and 
has deservedly bequeathed his name to the Strait which he was 
the first to explore, and the desolate Island on which he died." — 
Tytler's Historical View, fyc. Ch. II. 






[20] " And they who plied the unequal barks of Spaii 

[To the daring yet abortive efforts of Portugal and Holland, 
we would here add the failures of France and Denmark, and lastly 
the inertness of Spain. Of this latter State one voyage alone is 
recorded, that of Gomez, in 1524, undertaken with the view of 
opening up a passage to the Moluccas. All that this officer 
effected was to touch at Newfoundland, and coast New England 
to the 40th degree of latitude, returning home after a ten months 
voyage. Nearly a century after this, Christian IV of Denmark 
despatched two vessels under Jens Munk for north-western dis- 
covery. Penetrating through the straits into Hudson's Bay, a 
crew of fifty-two were reduced eventually by famine and disease 
to two only in number. Munk, however, with this small remnant, 
contrived to reinstate one of the ships, and arrived safe in Den- 
mark after a perilous voyage. This ill-fated officer, feeling severely 
some expressions of the king imputing to him mismanagement as 
the cause of his failure, died, it is recorded, of a broken heart. 

Upon the part of the French government, some more recent 
polar researches terminated unfavourably. The first of these was 
attempted in 1833, by M. De Blosseville ; but his vessel, the "Lil- 
loise," a brig of war, never returned, having foundered, probably, 
with her crew, on the eastern coast of Greenland, whence came the 
last dates of her commander. In the following season, another 
vessel, under the command of M. Dutaillis, was despatched 
in search of the former; and, subsequently, a third, under 
M. Trehouart, with a like object: the polar elements, however, 
compelled them to abandon their purpose. In Russian enterprise 
little occurs worth notice, if we except the names and exploits of 
Wrangel and Kotzebue. Behring was no Russian, his fame be- 
belongs to Denmark.] 



164 AECTIC ENTERPRISE. 



PAET V. 



[1] " And in his side a barbed death is hurled." 

[The work entitled " Discovery and Adventure in the Polar 
Seas and Regions" contains a brief yet masterly treatise on the 
subject of the Whale-fishery, its operations, incidents, and perils, 
from the earliest period to the present time. After a preliminary 
notice of its history, and of the ardour it awakened among the 
maritime States of Europe, the writer proceeds to a graphic 
description of the attack and capture of the whale, from which the 
following are extracts.] 

" Having approached as near as is consistent with safety, the 
Harpoon er darts his instrument into the side of the monster. 
This is a critical moment ; for often, when the mighty animal feels 
the wound, he throws himself into violent convulsive movements, 
vibrating into the air his tremendous tail, one lash of which is 
sufficient to dash a boat to pieces. More commonly, however, he 
plunges rapidly into the sea, or beneath the thickest fields of ice. 
While he is thus moving, at the rate, usually, of eight or ten miles 
an hour, the utmost diligence must be used, that the line to which 
the harpoon is attached may run off smoothly and readily along 
with him. ********* 

*********** 

" The period, during which a wounded whale remains under 
water is various, but is averaged by Mr. Scoresby at about half an 
hour. Then, pressed by the necessity of respiration, he appears 
above, often considerably distant from the spot where harpooned, 
and in a state of great exhaustion, which the same ingenious 
writer ascribes to the severe pressure that he has endured when 
placed beneath a column of water 700 or 800 fathoms deep. 

•"All the boats have, meantime, been spreading themselves in 
various directions, that one at least may be within a start, as it is 
called, or about 200 yards of the point of his rising, at which dis- 
tance they can easily reach and pierce him with one or two more 
harpoons before he again descends. On his re-appearance a 
general attack is made with lances, which are struck as deep as 
possible, to reach and penetrate the vital parts. Blood mixed with 
oil streams copiously from his wounds, and from the blow-holes, 
dyeing the sea to a great distance, and sometimes drenching the 

[part v.] 



NOTES. 165 

boats and crews. The animal now becomes more and more ex- 
hausted, but, at the approach of death, he often makes a convulsive 
struggle, rearing his tail high in the air, and whirling it with a 
noise which is heard at the distance of several miles. At length, 
quite overpowered, he lays himself on his side or back and 
expires." — Polar Seas, &c. Ch. XII. 

[In a former chapter of the work here referred to, under the 
head " Animal Life," we find the following passage."] 

" The tail is the most active limb of this monarch of the deep, 
and the chief instrument of his motion. ******** 
* * * * * * |ts power is tremendous. A single stroke 
throws a large boat with all its erew into the air. Sometimes he 
places himself in a perpendicular position, with the head down- 
wards, and, rearing his tail on high, beats the water with awful 
violence. On these occasions the sea foams, and vapours darken 
the air ; the lashing is heard several miles off, like the roar of a 
distant tempest. At other times he makes an immense spring, 
and lifts his whole body above the waves, to the admiration of the 
experienced whaler, but to the terror of those who see for the first 
time this astonishing spectacle." — Polar Seas, $c. Ch. II. 

[In tracing the circumstances which led to the pursuit of this 
formidable animal, we should have to do with those early adven- 
turers to whom the flesh of the whale, as food, appears to have 
been the principal attraction. The Northmen, themselves the 
earliest whale-fishers, were the first to invite to this enterprise : 
the object of their search, however, was not that whale, whose pur- 
suit became subsequently so profitable a speculation ; this animal 
must be sought for in the Arctic seas. Taught by their northern 
invaders, the coasts of France and Spain sent forth their fishing 
expeditions. But the English, as the above writer informs us,] 

" Were the first who pushed their operations into the depth of 
the Arctic ocean. ******** The views of the 
merchants were much extended, when Hudson, having engaged in 
his daring attempt to reach the Pole, surveyed Spitzbergen or East 
Greenland to its northern extremity ; and although unable to pe- 
netrate farther, he gave information regarding the immense num- 
ber of whales which were seen on those shores. Thenceforth the 
adventurers, fitted out for discovery, were instructed to cover their 
expenses, as far as might be, by the occasional capture of these 
valuable animals. This arrangement was not happy, so far as the 



166 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

interests of geographical science were concerned, since the con- 
siderations of profit too often superseded the main object of the 
voyage."— Polar Seas, &c. Ch. XII. 

[The English, however, although they were the first to open 
and extend this source of industry, did not long enjoy undisturbed 
possession of the Arctic seas. The Dutch soon appeared as their 
competitors ; and after a series of conflicts, an arrangement was 
concluded, under which all those states that had been in the habit 
of frequenting the fisheries, Dutch, Danes, Hamburghers, French, 
and Spanish, were assigned their respective waters. The Dutch, 
a patient, persevering race, soon converted this interest into a 
source of national wealth. To facilitate their operations, they 
founded settlements on those dreary shores ; while the failure of 
some British companies, who had embarked in whaling specu- 
lations, gave new strength to Dutch interests, which, however, 
suffered severely from an unexpected cause. The whales, terrified 
by the unusual slaughter that had overtaken them, abandoned 
their old haunts, and retired so far into the Polar seas that their 
pursuers became disconcerted. It appears, however, that individual 
enterprise took up the matter at home, and even under prospects 
thus blighted, a still greater number of ships were fitted out from 
the ports of Holland. 

In the face of such circumstances, and after the failure of 
the companies alluded to, it might have been expected that even 
British zeal would be discouraged. Misfortunes, however, signal 
as they were, proved insufficient to damp the national ardour for 
these perilous pursuits ; it would seem rather that they helped 
to give a fresh impulse to the exertions of enterprise. To 
encourage these exertions, the British Government offered a 
bounty of twenty shillings per ton to vessels exceeding 200 tons 
eno-ao-ed in the fisheries, and this again was extended subsequently 
to forty shillings. Such a course had at length the usual effect ; 
and, after some further fluctuations in the bounty awarded, it 
settled down finally to twenty shillings. Yet, thus discouraged, 
the fisheries of Britain increased, and the subjection of her former 
rival, Holland, to the restrictive policy of Napoleon, helped to 
establish her in absolute dominion over the Polar seas.] 



[2] " That nurse of life, yet source of all his woes" 

" But the most characteristic and important feature of the 

[part v.] 



NOTES. 167 

cetacea consists in a thick layer of fatty substance, called blubber, 
lodged beneath the skin and surrounding the body, which yields, 
on expression, nearly its own bulk of thick, coarse, viscid oil. It 
is by this covering that Providence enables them to defy the 
utmost extremity of cold, and to preserve a strong animal heat 
even under the eternal ice of the Pole. Yet this substance, being 
subservient to the uses of man, has roused a dreadful and deadly 
enemy, ************ He pursues 
them through ice and tempest, and dyes the seas with their blood." 
Polar Seas, &c. Ch. II. 



[3] " A Briton's was the doom, where held command" 

[This first expedition, fitted out under the auspices of the 
youthful monarch, Edward VI, was remarkable alike for the 
pomp that attended its preparation, and the signal disaster that 
characterized its close. Instructions for the conduct of the intended 
voyage were drawn up by Cabot, who had been elevated to the 
post of Grand Pilot of England, and the chief command was 
confided to Sir Hugh Willoughby, whose pilot-major, Richard 
Chancelor, was an eleve of Henry, father of the illustrious Sir 
Philip Sidney. 

Overtaken by a tempest, and involved in the mists of the 
North-eastern seas, the two principal ships parted company, and 
never met again. From this time, the voyage of Sir Hugh 
Willoughby appears to have been marked by a series of doubts 
and uncertainties, ending finally, not in shipwreck, but fixture 
in the frozen waters of the coast of Russian Lapland.] 

" In these fell regions, in Arzina caught, 
And to the stony deep his idle ship 
Immediate sealed, he, with his hapless crew, 
Each full-exerted at his several task, 
Froze into statues ; to the cordage glued 
The sailor, and the pilot to the helm." 

Thomson. 

[Chancelor reached the White Sea, from whence journeying in a 
sledge to Moscow, he succeeded in establishing a friendly inter- 
course between Great Britain and Russia, then under the rule of 
Ivan Vasilovitch ; the immediate result of which was the 
establishment of the Muscovy Company. 



168 AECTIC ENTERPRISE. 

The ships of Sir Hugh Willoughby were discovered some 
years afterwards by fishermen of Lapland, fixed in the ice with 
their crews, and the journal of their voyage, up to the last date, 
lying, as it is recorded, before the unfortunate commander.] 



[4] " Hosts, all-regardless of each former doom," 

[Chancelor was again sent out with credentials from his 
Government to the Court of Muscovy; and, in 1556, a small 
vessel, the " Searchthrift," was fitted out and placed under the 
command of Stephen Burroughs, who had before acted with 
Chancelor. This, likewise, proved a failure, which, together with 
the abandonment of a wild scheme of reaching India by the 
White Sea and the Caspian, entertained by the Muscovy Company, 
brings us up to the terrible expeditions under Barentz, of which 
there are notices in Part IV.] 



[5] " His greatness in another hemisphere" — 

[In 1607, Henry Hudson was sent out by the Muscovy Com- 
pany, to sail, if possible, across the Pole. This is the first occasion 
upon which this bold project was attempted, and Hudson here first 
figures in the list of Arctic Adventurers. In the following year 
we find the same great commander steering north-east, under the 
instructions of the London merchants, between Nova Zembla and 
Spitzbergen ; he was quickly diverted, however, from this course, 
and returned to England. In 1609, he was appointed to a like 
service under the Dutch East India Company ; he appears to have 
evinced no great love for North-eastern enterprise ; and so, quickly 
repassing the North Cape, he directed his course to America, in 
whose waters he found a more congenial field, and one in which he 
has established a permanent fame.] 



[6] " And what might humbler daring have availed T % 

[Captain John Wood, in his vessel, the " Speedwell," was the 

last effort of the British Government in the North-eastern seas. 

His ship was lost on the coast of Nova Zembla, and himself and 

crew saved with difficulty. 

The names occurring in this note are worthy of more than 

that fleeting notice which confined space renders necessary.] 

Subsequently to the voyages of Stephen Bennet, Hudson, and 

Jonas Poole for Polar discovery, an expedition took place in 1613, 

[part v.] 



NOTES. 169 

under William Baffin, one of the most renowned of Arctic Adven- 
turers : yet the results of this voyage of Baffin were unimportant, as 
also those of one undertaken the following year by Robert Fotherby, 
with whom Baffin acted as pilot. Nor was it until after the lapse 
of more than a century that any scheme for crossing the North 
Pole was again devised. In 1773, an expedition left the shores of 
England, consisting of two bomb-vessels, the " Race-horse" and 
the " Carcass," under the command of Captain John Phipps ; the 
latter was confided to Lieutenant Lutwidge, under whom the 
future naval hero of England, Horatio Nelson, served as cockswain. 
After a voyage most turbulent, and, in some respects, disastrous, 
yet replete with interest, they returned to the Nore. Captain Cook 
was now equipped to attempt the Polar course by way of Behring's 
Strait ; he sailed in his old ship, the " Resolution," accompanied by 
Captain Clerke in the " Discovery," passed Nootka Sound, reached 
and named Icy Cape, and returning to winter at the Sandwich 
Islands, was killed by one of the natives. 

About five years before the expedition of Phipps and Lutwidge, 
Hearne, a bold and hardy adventurer, was despatched by the Hud- 
son's Bay Company to discover the copper-mine supposed to exist 
in the northern parts of Hudson's Bay. And about twenty years 
subsequently to this (in 1789), Mackenzie, a native of Inverness, 
formed and accomplished the daring project of piercing across the 
North- American Continent from Athabaska Lake, upon which was 
situated an advanced post of the North-west Company, a new 
association then recently formed. 

Some years (about ten) prior to this, the names of Mears, Van- 
couver, and Kotzebue appear as explorers on the North-west coast 
of America. Mears gives some details of his intercourse with the 
Nootkans (Borderers of Nootka Sound, previously visited by Cap- 
tain Cook) ; these are so strange and startling as to furnish, of 
themselves, the materials for a volume. Kotzebue was a son of 
the celebrated Kotzebue, and himself known by the Sound named 
after him. Vancouver had served as a midshipman with Captain 
Cook. 

In the year 1818, Captain David Buchan sailed for the purpose 
of pushing, if possible, across the Pole to India. This expedition 
was simultaneous with that of Captain Ross for North-western 
discovery. After a course marked by the usual perils and ob- 
structions, one of his ships, the " Dorothea," encountered a terrific 



170 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

storm, which drove her irresistibly towards the main field of ice ; 
and it was now that the sudden and desperate resolution was formed 
of turning the helm so that the vessel might be driven head fore- 
most upon it, and seek thus a refuge from the violence of the sea : 
she forced her way, and remained immoveably fixed ; this occurred 
near Spitzbergen. The gale, however, subsiding, the vessel reached 
the harbour of Smeerenberg, where she underwent repairs, and the 
expedition returned to England. It was in this terrible voyage 
that Sir John (then Lieutenant) Franklin first entered upon that 
field of enterprise where he was destined to achieve imperishable 
laurels, leaving behind him a name which will live for ever in the 
annals of his country.] 



[7] " Where Tie, who tempted the Pole's iciest gale" 

[The failure of repeated attempts to reach or cross the Pole pro- 
duced a suspension of public interest in an undertaking deemed 
now impracticable ; until, as the learned writer of a work already 
quoted observes] — " The speculations of Mr. Scoresby presented 
more than ordinary claims to attention, as exhibiting the conclusions 
of a diligent, accurate, and scientific observer. Trained from 
infancy to the navigation of the frozen seas, under the direction of 
his father, and bred a practical whale-fisher, he conjoined ex- 
perience with ingenuity and judgment." — Polar Seas, <$c. Ch. I. 
[In 1806, Mr. Scoresby made the nearest approach to the Pole by 
ship yet fully authenticated ; he was then acting as mate to his 
father. Leaving Jan Mayen Island, they reached Hakluyt's Head- 
land in Spitzbergen. Again, in 1818, Mitre Cape was visited, 
when Mr. Scoresby ascended its mountain.] 

" The view from this mountain is described by Mr. Scoresby as 
equally grand and beautiful. On the east side were two finely 
sheltered bays ; while the sea, unruffled by a single breeze, formed 
an immense expanse to the west. The icebergs reared their fan- 
tastic forms almost on a level with the highest hills, whose cavities 
they filled, while the sea illumined but could not dissolve them. 
The valleys were enamelled with beds of snow and ice, one of which 
extended beyond reach of the eye ; and in the interior, mountains 
rose beyond mountains, till thy melted into distance." — Polar 
Seas, %c. Ch. IX. 



8] " Turning at length, strange fates pursued his feet ;" 

[PART V,] 



NOTES. 171 

" If a fragment was detached, it bounded from rock to rock, 
raising smoke at every blow, and setting numerous other pieces in 
motion, till, amid showers of stones, it reached the bottom. The 
descent of the party was more perilous than the ascent." — Polar 
Seas, Sec, Ch/lX. 



[9] " That strand beneath was living to the sight ;" 

" The beach was found nearly covered with the nests of terns, 
ducks, and other tenants of the Arctic air, in some of which there 
were young, over whom the parents kept watch, and, by loud cries 
and vehement gestures, sought to defend them against the predatory 
tribes which hovered around." — Polar Seas, 8$c. Ch. IX. 



[10] " This was the same stern Resolute who steered" 

[Dr. Scoresby now visited Jan Mayen Island a second time.] — 
" The most striking feature was the stately Beerenberg, which rears 
its head 6870 feet above the sea. * * * * The first objects 
that attracted his attention were three magnificent icebergs, * * 
* stretching from the base of the mountain to the water's edge." 
—Polar Seas, %c. Ch. IX. 



[11] " When, strange to say, loud chambers from beneath" 

[In the scientific remarks in his work on the Arctic Regions, 
Dr. Scoresby has noticed the elevations around the peak of Beeren- 
berg, as composed of volcanic materials.] — " After leaving the sea 
shore," says he, " I perceived no other mineral but such as bore 
undoubted marks of recent volcanic action. * * * * * The 
place from whence these substances appear to have been discharged 
being near, we attempted to reach it. * * * * * We fre- 
quently slid backwards several paces by the pieces of lava giving 
way beneath our feet ; in which case the ground generally resounded 
as if we had been travelling on empty metallic vessels, or vaulted 
caverns." — Scoresby's Arctic Regions. 



[12] " But from the Pole repulsed, lo I yet again" 

[The most important voyage of this enterprising navigator was 
made in 1822, during which he completed the observation of four 
hundred miles of coast on East Greenland ; a tract almost entirely 
unknown. With regard to these shores] — " their aspect, and th 
general analogy of the Arctic shores, suggested the idea that these 



172 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

mighty cliffs dipped perpendicularly into the waves.'' — Polar 
Seas, %c. [On the refractive power of the Polar atmosphere, as 
observed in this interesting voyage, we have the following from the 
same source.] — "The rugged surface assumed the forms of castles, 
obelisks, and spires, which here and there were sometimes so linked 
together as to present the appearance of an extensive city. At 
other times it resembled a forest of naked trees ; and Fancy scarcely 
required an effort to identify its varieties with the productions of hu- 
man art, * * * * * even with the shapes of lions, bears, 
horses, and other animals. Ships were seen inverted, and sus- 
pended high in the air, and their hulls often so magnified as to 
resemble huge edifices." — Volar Seas, tyc. Ch. IX. 



[13] " But dull inglorious schemes perplex 'd his soul" 

" They had been fitted out by a mercantile body to bring home 
a cargo of whale-oil, and this solid purpose could not be postponed 
for the most brilliant speculations of Science." — Polar Seas, #c. 
Ch. IX. 



[14] "Knights lingering fate, with Barlow's lonely end?" 

[In the year following the expedition last-named, Captain 
Clavering was sent out to convey to the Arctic regions the eminent 
scientific inquirer, Colonel Sabine. Some additional discoveries 
were made on the shores that had been ranged by Dr. Scoresby : 
but, after a futile attempt on the part of the Danish Government, 
and some disastrous researches on the part of the French (to which 
a reference has already been made), the terrific voyage of Buchan 
(already noticed) seems to have been the latest attempt to reach 
the Pole in ships. We now approach the subject of North-western 
discovery. 

These officers (Knight and Barlow) appear to have suffered 
a dreadful fate. The Hudson's Bay Company despatched them, 
in 1719, for the discovery of the North-west passage. They 
never returned, and half a century elapsed before any traces of 
the expedition were found : they had been cast and probably 
starved on Marble Island. 

With regard to such men as Baffin, Davis, and Hudson, their 
greatness is sufficiently established by the seas that bear their names. 

The unsuccessful voyages of Button, Gibbons, and Bylot, in the 
years 1612-14-15, along the shores of Hudson's Bay, led to 

[PART v.] 



NOTES. 173 

the expeditiou of 1616, through Davis's Strait, under Bylot and 
Baffin. This voyage produced the memorable discoveries in the 
Bay named after the latter officer. 

Davis conducted three successive expeditions, about seven 
years subsequently to Frobisher's last voyage, commencing in 1585. 
These, although terminating unfavourably for the object in view, 
(viz. the North-west passage to India), were sufficient to immor- 
talize their leader. 

Hudson, after a varied career of enterprise during three expe- 
ditions, the last signalized by the discovery of the river upon which 
rose the city of New York, fell, in his fourth, or North-western 
adventure, a victim to a terrible revolt of his crew, the circum- 
stances of which are fearful beyond precedent. The principal actors, 
however, in the atrocities recorded, incurred a retribution which 
came but little short of the cruelties they had themselves inflicted.] 
See, for further details, EundaWs Narrative of North-west Voy- 
ages from 1496 to 1631. 



[15] " His conquering greatness to his native seas." 

[After the conduct of three expeditions to the North-western 
seas in 1576-77-78, the incidents of which would form, of them-* 
selves, a volume, Martin Frobisher sailed with Sir Francis Drake 
to the West Indies, and took part with that great officer in the 
destruction of the Spanish Armada ; for his valour on this occasion 
he received the honours of knighthood. 

About fifteen years after the last attempt of Davis, an expedi- 
tion was set on foot through the united interests of the Muscovy 
and Levant Companies ; to this was appointed Captain George 
Weymouth. It appears to have been an utter failure, although 
Weymouth is entitled to the merit of having first pointed the way 
to those waters where Hudson made his well-known discoveries. 
A conspiracy of the crew compelled their captain to change his 
course ; after which he encountered a tempest of unexampled 
violence that drove him before it, and he returned to England. 

Captains Fox and James were fitted out in 1631. Fox ex- 
amined two Straits to the north of Hudson's Bay, but did not 
penetrate far. James passed a winter on the southern coast of the 
same, under the utmost suffering. 

Parry has his Archipelago in the Polar seas ; and Franklin 
— alas !] 



174 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

[16] " The amphibious Bach pursued his huge career" 

[Of all recorded expeditions to the seas of the North, the one 
here under consideration appears to have been signalized by the most 
appalling circumstances of danger. Indeed, from the first moment 
of her encounter with the ice, across the mouth of Davis's Straits, 
up to the final return of the shattered " Terror" to the British 
shores, there occurred scarce a respite from continuous and imminent 
peril. The incidents of the whole enterprise, as graphically told by 
the Commander, Sir George Back, have an interest throughout so 
intensely fearful, that it would be impossible to convey in selected 
passages any fair representation of them to that reader, if such 
there be, who is yet a stranger to their history. The object of the 
expedition was to complete the coast-line between Prince Regent's 
Inlet and Point Turnagain ; it was equipped by the Govern- 
ment, at the instance of the Royal Geographical Society, and to the 
command was appointed Captain Back, an officer who had rendered 
his name imperishable, both in his own discoveries on the northern 
coasts of America, and as a participator in the sufferings endured 
in the ever-memorable journey of Franklin on the same shores. 

The purpose of this voyage was further advanced afterwards, in 
1839, by Messrs. Dease and Simpson, officers of the Hudson's 
Bay Company ; and finally accomplished by Dr. Rae, acting like- 
wise under their instructions. The mode of proceeding was in 
boats combined with land-portage.] 



[17] " Yet Heaven was at his side when Hood expired." 

[Poor Hood ! the much-loved companion of Franklin, Richard- 
son, and Back, on the terrible land-expedition referred to recently : 
he was mysteriously murdered by an Indian attendant, named 
Michel. 

" Bickersteth's ' Scripture Help' was lying open beside the 
body, as if it had fallen from his hand ; and it is probable that he 
was reading it at the instant of his death. We passed the night 
in the tent together without rest, every one being on his guard." — 
Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the 
years 1819-20-21-22 ; by Captain J. Franklin. — Eichardso7i's 
Narrative, Id. 



[18] " True Richardson, a name to fear unknown" 

[For instances of the fortitude and intrepidity of Richardson 

[PART V.] 



NOTES, 175 

on this adventure, the reader is referred to the narrative of Sir John 
Franklin's journey to the shores of the Polar Sea.] 



[19] " The persevering Ross Ms fame pursued ;" 

[The first voyage of Ross for North-western discovery was un- 
dertaken in 1818, at the suggestion of Sir John Barrow, who, 
during the long Peace, never ceased to urge these Polar Expe- 
ditions, which, as he truly remarks, have been the means of em- 
ploying and bringing forward some of the best Officers in the 
Naval Service, and raising the character of the British Seaman. 
From about the middle of the previous century, or, at least, 
since the failure of Captain Middleton, and the return of the 
great armament sent out under Captains Moor and Smith, in 
1746, scarcely any advance had been made towards the solution of 
the North-western problem. The ships comprised in the first ex- 
pedition of Sir John Ross were the " Isabella" of 385 tons, and 
the "Alexander" of 252 ; this latter vessel was confided to the late 
lamented Sir William Edward (then Lieutenant) Parry. Another 
and daring expedition, simultaneous with this, has already been 
brought under review ; that of Captain Buchan towards the Pole. 

The interesting journals of Sir John Ross supply the details 
here of many pages ; and the striking and romantic incidents of 
an incarceration of four years in the icy seas of the North, will, it 
is hoped, afford some excuse for dwelling long on records so strange 
and captivating. 

It was during the second expedition of Sir John Ross, in 1829* 
that the Magnetic Pole was discovered by his nephew, Sir James 
Clarke (then Commander) Ross. — See Sir John Barrow's History 
of Arctic Voyages.'] 

[20] " But he had cleft those seas before, and been," 

[This, be it observed, was in the first voyage, in 1818. In 
Davis's North-west Voyage, the aspect of Greenland is thus de- 
scribed :] 

" Deformed, rocky, and mountainous, like a sugar-loaf, standing 
to our sight above the clouds. It towered through the fog like a 
white list in the sky, the tops altogether covered with snow, the 
shore beset with ice, making such irksome noise, that it was called 
the Land of Desolation.'" 

" The large islands that skirt this coast (West Greenland), of 



176 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

which the most considerable is Disco, are, like the continent, com- 
posed of barren rocks, and of valleys filled with eternal ice." — Polar 
Seas, $c. Ch. XIII. Arctic Geology. 

" On the l?'th of June, in the neighbourhood of Waygat Island, 
an impenetrable barrier obliged the discoverers to stop their course, 
making themselves fast to an iceberg, and having forty-five whale- 
ships in company." — Id. Ch. VII. 



[21] " Even to those shores, Adventure's utmost bound;'" 

■[It was high up on the coast of West Greenland that Eoss 

came upon that tribe of Esquimaux whom national feelings led 

him to distinguish by the name of " the Arctic Highlanders." 
Kabloona, the Esquimaux term for the white man.] 
" The first party whom the navigators approached showed every 

sign of alarm, — dreading a fatal influence from the mere touch of 

beings whom they regarded as members of an unknown species." 

—Polar Seas, %c. Ch. VII. 

" The rest of the party then came up with fifty dogs, which 

joined their masters in raising a tremendous clamour." — Id. Ch. 

VII. 

" The ship was the next object of their speculation ; * * * 

They conceived it to be a huge bird, spreading its vast wings, and 

endowed with reason. One of them, pulling his nose* with the 

utmost solemnity, began thus to address it : — " Who are you ? 

whence come you ? Is it from the sun or the moon ?" — Id. 

Ch. VII. 



[22] " Reputed bold, Experience spoke his worth," 

[Previously to this expedition, Captain Ross] " had twice win- 
tered in the Baltic, had been employed in surveying the White Sea, 
and had been as far north as Bear or Cherie Island." — Polar 
Seas, %c. Ch. VII. 

[23] " And now we trace him through the waves again" 

[Here commence some details of that protracted and perilous 
expedition of the " Victory," under Captain (now Sir John) Ross, 



[* The appeal to this prominent featnre of the face, either in salutation, or 
as denoting some emotion, was remarked by Captain M'Clure and other officers 
among the tribes of the North-west American coast.] 

[part V.] 



NOTES. 177 

which resulted in the discovery (by his nephew) of the Magnetic 
Pole, and the opening-up and survey of those hitherto mysterious 
shores named after the munificent patron of the enterprise, Sir 
Felix Booth. The Victory was frozen up in Felix harbour.] 

" In preparing for the gloom and rigour of this long winter, he 
made some improvements even upon the admirable arrangements 
of Captain Parry. ***** The strength and spirits of 
the crew were supported by regular meals and constant occupation. 
Divine Service was duly performed, and religious instruction dis- 
pensed at a school held every Sunday evening. ***** 
On the other nights a school also was attended." — Polar Seas, 8$c. 
Ch. VIII. 



[24] " Yet sailor-like, tliey took a cheering leave : " 

[After a long period of endurance, during which little actual 
navigation was made, — many stirring incidents, and some agreeable 
surprises (among which should be reckoned the discovery of the 
" Fury's" stores), and many energetic land-excursions, in which 
Commander (now Sir James C.) Ross, especially distinguished him- 
self ; every hope of bringing home the " Victory" having failed, she 
was finally abandoned.] 

"On the 29th May," [1832] "they hoisted the colours, nailed 
them to the mast, and drank a parting glass to the Victory, which 
they considered worthy of a better fate." — Polar Seas, &c. Ch.VIII. 



[25] " Where wreck had'been, even by a chief's command :'' 

[On this coast, the "Fury" — companion of the "Hecla" in 
the third expedition of Parry, in 1824, — having received a 
severe nip, that entirely disabled her, was thrown and deserted ; and 
her stores, — including wine, bread, flour, sugar, spirits, and cocoa, 
and even her sails, in entire preservation, — discovered now, after a 
lapse of years, proved the salvation of the " Victory's" crew. 

For all particulars relating to this event, and the abandonment 
of the " Victory,'' the reader is referred to the deeply-interesting 
journals of Parry and Ross.] 

[26] " They raised a dwelling, 'twas no mean exploit : " 

" They immediately enjoyed a hearty meal, and soon raised a 
canvass mansion, which they named Somerset House." — Polar 
Seas, &c. Ch. VIII. 



3 78 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE . 

[27] " The gathering symptoms of that dire disease," 

"On the 16th February, 1833," [their fourth winter] "Thomas, 
the carpenter, died of scurvy, — an event deeply regretted in itself, 
and regarded as a warning of what was too likely to befall 
the rest. Several of the seamen, in fact, became affected with this 
cruel disease, of which Captain Ross himself felt the sure approach 
by the return of pain in his old wounds." — Polar Seas, &c. 
Ch. VIII. 



[28] " The stranger thus, — ' I am from British land ;' " 

[Captain Humphreys, who commanded here the " Isabella " of 
Captain Ross's expedition in 1818. — For the closing scenes of 
this formidable and romantic enterprise, the reader is referred to 
the journals of Sir John Ross.] 



PART VI. 

[1] " From Greenland's cliffs to Georgia's utmost isles ;" 

[The three expeditions of Parry for the discovery of the North- 
west passage, were undertaken in the years 1819, 21, 24. The 
vessels comprising the first of these were the " Hecla," of 375 
tons, with a crew of fifty-eight men, and the " Griper" gun-brig, 
of 180 tons, with a crew of thirty-six ; the latter under the com- 
mand of Lieutenant Liddon. On the second occasion, the " Fury," 
of 327 tons, accompanied the " Hecla ;" the " Hecla" was now 
given over to the command of Captain Lyon, an officer who had 
distinguished himself by services in Africa. On the last voyage, 
in 1824, the same ships were employed, and the " Fury'' confided 
to Captain Hoppner, who had served in the previous expedition. 

In the voyage of 1819, Captain Parry was the fortunate dis- 
coverer of a group of islands, named by him the " North Georgian," 
but marked in the recent charts as the " Parry Islands."] 

" The country thus situated upon the shores of the Western or 
Polar Sea is called Akkoolee, and is inhabited by numerous 
Esquimaux." — Journal of Voyage for the Discovery of the 
North-west Passage, in 1819, 20. W. E. Parry, R.N, Com- 
mander of the Expedition. 

[part VI.] 



NOTES. 179 

[2] " The task, the dance, the drama, and the song,* 

" We had, some time before, set about the preparations for our 
winter amusements ; and the theatre being ready, we opened on 
the 5th November, with the representation of " Miss in her Teens." 
— Parry's Journal, &c. p. 113. 

[On this occasion, Lieutenant Beechey officiated as stage- 
manager, and the other officers offered themselves as amateur per- 
formers. Some original plays also were written and produced ; 
while, to add to the fund of amusement, a journal was published, 
under the title of the " North Georgian Gazette," edited by Captain 
Sabine, and to which all were invited to add contributions. — After 
speaking of his daily inspection of the crews, and his means of 
discipline ; the mode of exercising them, when, from the severity of 
the weather, they were compelled to remain on board, is thus 
stated,] 

" They were ordered to run round and round the deck, keeping 
step to a tune on the organ, or, not unfrequently, to a song of their 
own." — Id. p. 124. 

[After the evening routine of inspection, &c] 

" The men were permitted to amuse themselves as they pleased, 
and games of various kinds, as well as dancing and singing, occa- 
sionally went on upon the lower deck, till nine o'clock, when they 
went to bed and their lights were extinguished." — Id. p. 126. 

"Our theatrical entertainments took place regularly once a 
fortnight, and continued to prove a source of infinite amusement to 
the men. **#**##■****■*■*#* 
We were at one time apprehensive that the severity of the weather 
would have prevented the continuance of this amusement, but the 
perseverance of the officers overcame every difficulty ; and, perhaps 
for the first time since theatrical entertainments were invented, 
more than one or two plays were performed on board the " Hecla" 
with the thermometer below zero on the stage.'' — Id. p. 127. 

" To furnish rational and useful occupation to the men, * * - * 
* * * a school was also established, * * * * * * * 
for the instruction of such of the men as were willing to take 
advantage of this opportunity of learning to read and write, or of 
improving in those acquirements." — Journal of Second Voyage 
for the Discovery of North-west Passage, in 1821, 22, 23.. — 
W. E. Parry, B.N., Commander of the Expedition. 



180 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

[8] " In his cold dome low sits the untutor'd man ;" 

[Sir Edward Parry has given some interesting particulars of a 
tribe of Esquimaux found somewhere on the shores of Repulse 
Bay ; it is impossible to resist the temptation of making here a few 
extracts from his delightful journals.] 

" If the first view of the exterior of this little village was such 
as to create astonishment, that feeling was in no small degree 
heightened on accepting the invitation soon given us to enter these 
extraordinary houses, in the construction of which we observed 
that not a single material was used but ice and snow. After 
creeping through two low passages, having each its arched 
doorway, we came to a small circular apartment of which the 
roof was a perfect arched dome. From this, three doorways, 
also arched, and of larger dimensions than the outer ones, led into 
as many inhabited apartments, one on each side, and the other 
facing us as we entered. The interior of these presented a scene no 
less novel than interesting. The women were seated on the beds 
at the sides of the tents, each having her little fire-place or lamp, 
with all her domestic utensils about her : the children crept behind 
their mothers, and the dogs, except the female ones, which were 
indulged with a part of the beds, slunk out past us in dismay. The 
construction of this inhabited part of the huts was similar to that 
of the outer apartments, being a dome formed by separate blocks of 
snow, laid with great regularity and no small art, each being cut 
into the shape requisite to form a substantial arch, from seven to 
eight feet high in the centre, and having no support whatever but 
what this principle of building supplied. I shall not here further 
describe the peculiarities of these curious edifices, remarking only 
that a cheerful and sufficient light was admitted to them by a cir- 
cular window of ice fitted into the roof of each apartment." — 
Journal of Second Voyage, &c. p. 160. 



[4] " While to his cubs he parts the artless meal." 

" The children were rather pretty ; though, from being thrown 
carelessly into the bottom of the boats, they had much the appear- 
ance of the young of wild animals." — Polar Seas, &c. Ch. VII. 



[5] " Poor child of chance I hath famine shrunk thy store ?'■' 

" Finding that these poor creatures were now really in want of 
food, for the men had again returned from an unsuccessful excur- 

[PART VI.] 



NOTES. 181 

sion, I was happy to avail myself of a hint given to me by Captain 
Lyon to furnish them occasionally with a small supply of bread- 
dust, of which we had two or three casks in each ship. Our pre- 
sent party was therefore, in addition to other articles, supplied with 
several pounds, which they immediately expressed their intention 
to take home to their children.*" — Journal of Parry's Second, 
Voyage, p. 166. 

[6] " Caught with his tale, and of his charm possessed" 

"After this friendly visit, an invitation was given to the 
Esquimaux to repair to the ships, when fifty accepted it with 
alacrity."— Polar Seas, &c. Ch. VII. 



[7] " While one, sagacious o'er the rest, betrays"' 

" Being extremely desirous of ascertaining what these Esqui- 
maux knew of the coast to the northward of our present station, we 
drew out roughly on a large sheet of paper the conformation of the 
land in their neighbourhood, and as far to the westward as Re- 
pulse Bay, and then requested Iligliuk to continue it to the north- 
ward. She readily understood our meaning, and with a pencil 
soon traced the various indentations in the coast, together with 
several islands." — Journal of Parry's Second Voyage, p. 185. 

" Iligliuk was not long in comprehending what we desired, and 
with a pencil continued the outline, making the land trend, as we 
supposed, to the north-eastward, and giving the names of the prin- 
cipal places, as she proceeded." — Id. p. 196. 

" We desired her to complete the rest, and to do it mikkie 
(small), when, with a countenance of the most grave attention and 
peculiar intelligence, she drew the coast of the continent beyond 
her own country, as lying nearly north, instead of east, from 
Winter Island. The most important part still remained, and 
it would have amused an unconcerned looker-on to have observed 
the anxiety and suspense depicted on the countenances of our part 
of the group, till this was accomplished, for never were the tracings 
of a pencil watched with more eager solicitude." — Id. p. 1.97- 



[* Seal-flesh being the principal food of these tribes, a failure of the fishery starves 
them, and deprives thern of fish-oil, the fuel of their lamps, &c] 



182 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

[8] " Thy soul is sad, thy home is with the dead /" 

[A reference has already been made to the dreadful land-expe- 
dition of Franklin on the shores of the Polar Sea; this was 
simultaneous with the earlier voyages of Parry. His home may 
truly be said to have been then with the dead (witness the tragedy 
of Hood and the Iroquois Indian, Michel ;' — and now ! — ]. 



[9] " FilVd with the future thus, as glanced his eye" 

[To the reader are here offered some details of the novel and 
daring ice-expedition of Parry towards the Pole. The unsuccess- 
ful issue of the various former expeditions (and lastly that of 
Buchan, in ]818,) had led to the belief that this object could not 
be accomplished by water ; when, acting upon his own experience, 
aided by the suggestions of Mr. Scoresby and Captain Franklin 5 
and under the authority and sanction of the Lords of the Ad- 
miralty, that great and hitherto most fortunate Arctic adventurer, 
Captain Parry, made the attempt to reach the Pole in two boats, to 
be dragged or navigated, as circumstances might require ; these 
boats, accordingly, were conveyed, together with himself and his 
crew, in his old ship, the " Hecla," to the northern coast of Spitz- 
bergen. They were formed of hickory and ash, with a canvass 
covering ; and were further strengthened by fir and oak planking, 
with felt between ; they were flat-bottomed and spacious, and had 
two runners each (one on each side of the keel) to fit them for use 
as sledges ; they carried, likewise, wheels. — After some rather dis- 
couraging incidents on reaching Hakluyt's Headland, Captain 
Parry left his vessel in a harbour named by him " Hecla Cove," 
with a portion of the crew in charge ; with the rest he embarked 
for the fields of ice. The provisions for this hazardous adventure 
were pemmican, biscuit, cocoa, and rum, with spirit of wine for 
fuel ; a change of clothing, fur dresses for sleeping, and Esquimaux 
boots : the snow-shoes were afterwards converted into sledges, for 
conveying the baggage. After a slow advance of about eighty 
miles from Hecla Cove, they reached the ice. 

This expedition left the British shores in March, 1827-] 



[10] " Whose depths a secret mystery conceal" 

" In this situation we tried for soundings with four hundred, 
fathoms of line without reaching the bottom ; the temperature at 
that depth, 30°, — that at the surface, 32|°, — the air 34°." — 

[PART "VI.] 



NOTES. 183 

Narrative of an Attempt to reach the North Pole, &c. under the 
command of Captain W. E. Parry, p. 73. 

"At seven, a.m. on the 28th June, we came to a floe covered 
with high and rugged hummocks, which opposed a formidable 
obstacle to our progress, occurring in two or three successive tiers, 
so that we had no sooner crossed one than another presented itself. 
Over one of these we hauled the boats with extreme difficulty, by 
a 'standing pull,' and the weather being then so thick that 
we could see no pass across the next tier, we were obliged to stop 
at nine, a.m, While performing this laborious task, which re- 
quired the boats to be got up and down places almost perpendicular, 
James Parker, my coxswain, received a severe contusion." — 
Id. p. 63. 

" We had light ice this day with some heavy rugged pieces in- 
termixed ; and when hauling across these we had sometimes to 
cut with axes a passage for the boats among the hummocks." — 
Id. p. 65. 

" The sledges having been brought up as far as we had explored, 
we all went back for the boats, each boat's crew, when the road 
was tolerable, dragging their own, and the officers labouring 
equally with the men." — Id. p. 68. 

" The labour required to drag the boats over the hummocks, and 
from one mass to another, was so great that we were obliged to 
have recourse to a * bowline-haul' for many minutes together." — 
Id. p. 73. 



[11] " Till, the slow sum of stated hours fulfilled," 

" After this, we halted for the night, as we called it, though it 
was usually early in the morning, selecting the largest surface of 
ice we happened to be near for hauling the boats on, in order to 
avoid the danger of its breaking up by coming in contact with 
other masses, and also to prevent drift as much as possible. The 
boats were placed close alongside each other, with their sterns to 
the wind, ****.**.**, and the sails supported by 
the bamboo masts and their paddles, placed over them as awnings, 
an entrance being left at the bow." —Parry's Narrative, &c. 
p. 57. 



184 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



[12] " And peremptory rule the mess divides." 

[The allowance of provisions for each man per day was as 
follows : 

Biscuit 10 ounces. 

Pemmican 9 do. 

Sweetened cocoa powder 1 do. to make one pint. 

Rum 1 gill. 

Tobacco 3 ounces per week.] 

[13] "No savoury messes steam, nowhere appear" 

[Except indeed, under such circumstances as the following :] 
" Our sportsmen had the good fortune to kill another seal to-day, 
which again proved a most welcome addition to our provisions and 
fuel. Indeed, after this supply of the latter, we were enabled to 
allow ourselves every night a pint of warm water for supper, each 
man making his own soup from such a portion of his bread and 
pemmican as he could save from dinner." — Parry's Narrative, $c. 
p. 96. 

[1 4] " Oft from up-wielded tube the evolving smoke'"' 

" Most of the officers and men then smoked their pipes, which 
served to dry the boats and awnings very much, and usually raised 
the temperature of our lodgings 10° or 15°. This part of the 
twenty-four hours was often a time, and the only one, of real 
enjoyment to us ; the men told their stories, and fought all their 
battles over again, and the labours of the day, unsuccessful as they 
too often were, were forgotten. ********** 
"We then concluded our day with prayers, and having put on our 
fur dresses, lay down to sleep with a degree of comfort, which, 
perhaps, few persons would imagine possible under such circum- 
stances." — Parry's Narrative, &c. p. 58. 

[15] " Probes the blown snows, and stems the obstructing 
storm" 
" As soon as we landed on a floe-piece, Lieutenant Ross and 
myself generally went on ahead while the boats were hauling up, 
in order to select the easiest road for them ; the sledges then fol- 
lowed in our track. ************* 
As soon as we arrived at the other end of the floe, or came to any 

[part VI.] 






NOTES. 185 

difficult place, we mounted one of the highest hummocks of ice near 
at hand, in order to obtain a better view around us, and nothing 
could well exceed the dreariness which such a view presented. 
********** It may well be imagined, then, 
how cheering it was to turn from this scene of inanimate desolation 
to our two little boats in the distance, to see the moving figures of 
our men winding with their sledges among the hummocks, and to 
hear once more the sound of human voices breaking the stillness of 
this icy wilderness." — Parry's Narrative, &c. p. 67. 



[16] Consign the night to toil, the day to rest." 1 

" It was my intention to travel wholly by night, and to rest by 
day, there being, of course, constant daylight in these regions 
during the summer season. The advantages of this plan consisted 
first in our avoiding the extreme and oppressive glare from the 
snow during the time of the sun's greatest altitude, so as to pre- 
vent, in some degree, the painful inflammation of the eyes, called 
'snow-blindness.' ****** The only disadvantage 
was that the fogs were somewhat more frequent, and more thick by 
night than by day." — Parry's Narrative, &c. p. 55. 



[17] " Though today's hope tomorrow's fate destroys," 

" We halted at seven, a.m., having by our reckoning accom- 
plished six miles and a half in a N.N.W. direction, the distance 
traversed being two miles and a half. It may, therefore, be 
imagined how great was our mortification in finding that our lati- 
tude, by observation at noon, was only 82° 36' 52", being less than 
five miles to the northward of our place at noon on the 17th, since 
which time we had certainly travelled twelve in that direction." — 
Parry's Narrative, &$c. p. 94. 



[18] " And strike with vocal jires the astonished ear :" 

[Hearne* (in a journal of his expedition to the shores of the 
Northern Seas) observes, in speaking of the Aurora Borealis, that 
" In the deep stillness of the night these northern meteors were 



[* This officer was despatched by the Hudson's Bay Company, about the year 
1770, to the borders of the country inhabited by the Athabascan Indians, to dis- 
cover the ore said to exist on the Coppermine River.] 



186 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



distinctly heard to make a rushing and crackling noise, like the 
waving of a large flag in a fresh gale of wind." — Hearne"s Journal. 

"Several questions have been agitated with respect to the 
Aurora. It has been said to be accompanied with a hissing and 
cracking noise; and indeed Captain Lyon observes, that the 
sudden glare and rapid bursts of those wondrous showers of fire 
make it difficult to fancy their movements wholly without sound." 
—Polar Seas, %c. Ch. VII. 

" Those singular streams of light, called commonly the Aurora 
Borealis, keep up an almost incessant illumination, and were fre- 
quently witnessed in full splendour by Captains Parry and Lyon 
during their Arctic residence." — Id. Ch. VII. 

" Other luminous meteors, arising apparently from the re- 
fraction caused by the minute and highly crystallized speculse of ice, 
appear in succession to embellish the northern sky. The sun and 
the moon are often surrounded by halos, — concentric circles of 
vapour, tinted with the brightest hues of the rainbow. Parhelia, 
or mock suns, frequently adorned with these accompaniments, 
shine at once in different quarters of the firmament." — Id. Ch. VII. 

" We frequently, during fogs, saw a broad white fog-bow opposite 
the sun; but one which appeared to-night was strongly tinged 
with the prismatic colours." — Narrative of an Attempt to Reach 
the North Pole, under command of Captain W. E. Parry, p. 86. 

" At half-past five, p.m., we witnessed a very beautiful natural 
phenomenon. A broad white fog-bow first appeared opposite the 
sun, as was very commonly the case ; presently it became strongly 
tinged with the prismatic colours, and soon afterwards no less than 
five other complete arches were formed within the main bow, 

* * * * * * t h e whole of them beautifully coloured." 
—Id. p. .99. 

[Lieut. W. H. Hooper, during his residence on the shores of 
the Polar Sea, whilst attached to Her Majesty's ship "Plover," made 
many valuable observations on the Aurora Borealis. — See Ten 
Months in the Tents of the Tuski, by Lieut. H. Hooper, R.N. 

The names of the boats employed on Parry's Polar excursion 
were, the '* Enterprise" and the " Endeavour." The sledges were 
formed from the Kamoogas (Lapland snow-boots). The farthest 
land attained was "Little Table Island."] 

" This island being the most northernmost known land in the 
world, naturally excited much of our curiosity; and bleak, and 

[PART VI.] 



NOTES. 187 

barren, and rugged as it is, one could not help gazing upon it with 
intense interest." — Parry's Narrative, &c. p. 43. 



PART VII. 



[1] " The great, the brave, yet unreturning Chief;" 

[Sir John Franklin entered the Royal Navy in 1800, and served, 
as Midshipman, in the action off Copenhagen, in 1801. A year 
or two after, he sailed on a voyage of discovery to New Holland, 
and suffered shipwreck. On his arrival in England, he joined the 
" Bellerophon," and took part in the battle of Trafalgar, in 1805. 
In 1818, after many previous distinctions, he accompanied Captain 
Buchan on a voyage of discovery to the seas about Spitzbergen. 
In the following year he conducted an expedition, destined over- 
land from Hudson's Bay, but with the more especial view of 
ascertaining the position of the Coppermine River, and the trend- 
ing (eastward thence) of the Polar Sea. Subsequently, and till 
the year 1822, we trace him up to the conclusion of his appalling 
journey of 5,550 miles, in company with Back, Richardson, and 
the unfortunate Hood, on the same continent. In 1825, this 
energetic officer again joined an expedition to the north, to search, 
in co-operation with Parry and Beechey (though from opposite 
quarters), for a North-west passage. After further service in the 
Mediterranean, in 1830, Sir John Franklin was appointed Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Van Dieman's Land ; and finally, in May, 
1845, became engaged in an expedition to explore a North-west 
passage to Behring's Straits, an expedition that has terminated 
most fatally.] 



[2] " Ross lives, and Rae and Richardson are there." 
[Among the searching expeditions of 1850, there was one, 
under Sir John Ross, equipped partly at his own expense and 
partly by public subscription, towards which the Hudson's Bay 
Company advanced £500. The vessels employed were one of 
120 tons, schooner-rigged, named the " Felix,'' and a small 
tender of twelve tons, Sir John Ross's yacht, the "Mary." 



188 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

The names of Rae and Richardson require but little comment ; 
with the former, we associate the hard-earned discoveries on the 
southern shores of Victoria and Wollaston Land, and the terrors 
of Repulse Bay, while the latter has long become memorable. 
We have here to notice them as connected with the first great 
expeditions of search, in 1848. The plan of proceeding on this 
occasion was by coasting and land-portage between the Copper- 
mine and Mackenzie Rivers.] 

" In preparation for it, several boats, seven tons of pemmican, 
large quantities of other stores and provisions, five seamen, and fifteen 
sappers and miners, were embarked at Gravesend, on board ships 
of the Hudson's Bay Company, on the 4th June, 1847." — Polar 
Seas, &c. Ch. XI. 

[Upon the return of Sir John Richardson, C.B. Dr. Rae remained 
on the Arctic shores, to endeavour to accomplish, in 1849, what 
had been left undone in 1848. While, early in 1850, he received 
instructions from the Hudson's Bay Company to organize yet a 
further expedition, in the event of failure in the former year. 
"With the further proceedings of this most enterprising officer, 
and his fearful discoveries, everyone is acquainted ; these, however, 
are given at some length in his painfully-interesting letters.] — 
See Parliamentary Papers, 8$c. 



[3] " A bloodless end, where chieftains of command" 

[In the expedition of 1850, by way of Baffin's Bay, under the 
command of Captain Austin, C.B.] " multitudes of officers nobly vied 
as volunteers to obtain the subordinate appointments." — Polar 
Seas, &c. Ch. XI. 



[4] " Or with descending bolt asunder hurl." 

[In the ever-memorable expedition of Captains Collinson, C.B. and 
M'Clure, in 1850, by way of Behring's Strait,] — "The ships were 
provisioned for three years, and supplied with balloons, blasting 
appliances, ice-saws, and many other contrivances for aiding their 
movements and research. Each also was provided with a pointed 
piece of mechanism, about fourteen pounds in weight, attached by 
a tackle to the end of the bowsprit, suited to be worked from the 
deck, and capable, by means of a series of sudden falls, to break 
ice of any ordinary thickness, and open a passage through a floe 
or light pack." — Polar Seas, &c. Ch. XI. 

[part VII.] 



NOTES. 



189 



[5] "See! at his post Antarctic Ross appear ." 

[This was the expedition of 1848, by way of Baffin's Bay, 
under the command of Captain Sir James C. Ross ; the vessels were 
the " Enterprise" and the " Investigator," of 470 and 420 tons re- 
spectively, each being provided with a screw- propelled steam- 
launch. After their arrival in Pond's Bay,] "they fired guns 
every half-hour, and closely examined every part of the shore 
with their glasses, but did not get sight of a single human being." 
— Polar Seas, &c. Ch. XI. 

[When off the coast of Lancaster Sound,] " They every day 
threw overboard, from each ship, a cask containing papers of 
information of all their proceedings ; and, in every fog, they 
periodically fired guns ; and, in every time of darkness, they 
burned rockets and blue lights." — Id. Ch. XI. 

[Frozen up finally in Port Leopold,] " During the winter a 
great many white foxes were taken alive in traps ; and as they are 
well known to travel great distances in search of food, they were 
fitted with copper collars, containing engraved notices of the 
position of the ships, and depots of provisions, and then set at 
liberty, in the hope that they would be caught by the crews of the 
" Erebus" and " Terror." — Id. Ch. XI. 

[After many exploratory journeys, undertaken during a winter 
passed in Port Leopold, from which they were forced eventually to 
cut their way out with saws, Sir J. C. Ross returned with his crews 
in the November of 1849.] 



[6] " Kellett, who, vainly-zealous, swept the tide" 

[The course of this officer, whose vessel (the "Herald," of 
twenty-six guns,) was already in the Pacific, took him through 
Behring's Strait into the Polar seas. The " Plover," surveying 
vessel, under Commander Moore, left the Thames in January, 
1848 ; but, owing to delays, and being compelled to winter on the 
Asiatic Coast, did not join her consort, the " Herald," till July, 
1849, while at anchor off Chamisso Island, Kotzebue Sound. 
It was here that Mr. Shedden, in his yacht, the " Nancy Dawson," 
first took his portion with the discoverers, and eventually fell a 
victim to his honourable exertions ; he died some months after at 
Mazatlan. Proceeding northward, the Herald discovered, some- 



190 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

where off Cape Lisburn, a new territory ; at first a group of 
islands, and subsequently a range of lofty and extensive land.] 

"There was a fine clear atmosphere, except in the direction of 
this land, where the clouds rolled in numerous immense masses, 
occasionally leaving the very lofty peaks uncapped, where could be 
distinctly seen columns, pillars, and very broken, which is very 
characteristic of the higher headlands in this sea. * * * * 
* * * * The distant mountainous land was supposed by 
Captain Kellett to be a continuation of the lofty range seen by the 
natives off Cape Jakan, in Asia, and mentioned by Baron 
Wrangel in his Polar Voyages." — Polar Seas, $c. Ch. XI. 

[In this voyage, Captain Kellett pursued a track identical, in 
some measure, with that of Captain Beechey, in 1825, when the 
latter officer was despatched to co-operate with Parry and Franklin 
in the investigation of the North-west passage. On that occasion, 
Captain Beechey, in his ship the " Blossom," became becalmed off 
Petropaulovski, in Kamtschatka ; but proceeded afterwards to 
Chamisso Island, and thence northward, threading the N. A. coast 
in boats as far as Point Barrow, which he named. On his return, 
lie deposited some provisions in Chamisso Island, which were 
discovered in 1849 by Commander Moore, of the "Plover,'' in 
perfect preservation. The object of this voyage of Captain Beechey 
appears to have been to relieve (if necessary) the expedition over- 
land of Franklin. The outward voyage had been accomplished 
within a few days of the time specified in his instructions ; a proof, 
in so long and perilous a track, of the discipline to which Captain 
Beechey had brought his crew. 

In the expedition of Kellett through Behring's Strait, Lieu- 
tenants Pullen and Hooper distinguished themselves by their exer- 
tions in a boat adventure, accompanied by the unfortunate Mr. 
Shedden in his yacht, along the North coast of America, as far as 
Point Barrow.] 



[7] " The fire rekindled and Tie could not rest.'''' 

[For the subsequent achievements of Captain Kellett, C.B., while 
command of the " Resolute," we must refer to the despatches of 
that officer ; and every one is acquainted with his timely measures 
undertaken at Dealy Island, for the relief of Captain M'Clure.] 



[part VII.] 



NOTES. 191 

[8] " Who struck down Death— himself more terrible.*' 

[To such men as Richardson, may well be applied the words 
of a great Poet] 

" He lived through that 
Which had been death to many." 



[9] " Envious to share, Columbia's sons advance." 

[This is the American expedition*, equipped at the instance 
and cost mainly, of Mr. Henry Grinnell, a merchant of New York ; 
the vessels employed were the " Advance" and the " Rescue," of 
125 and 95 tons, respectively, placed under the command of 
Lieutenant De Haven, an officer who had already served in an 
exploring expedition in the Antarctic seas.] 

" It sailed from New York on the 24th of May, 1850, and 
was accompanied for two days in his yacht by Mr. Grinnell. Its 
object was to push promptly forward, in any way it could, in the 
direction of Melville Island and Banks Land — to winter wherever 
it might happen to stick fast, in the pack or out of the pack — and 
to move on and make search, as long as it might be able, in any 
direction which should offer most promise of success — reckless at 
once of nice precautions and of all ordinary obstacles." — Polar 
Seas, Ch. XL 



[10] " He who by Osborn's cape of glaciers came;" 

[Sir Edward Belcher, C. B., commanded that squadron in the 
Artie Seas destined to renew in 1852-3 the search for Sir John 
Franklin. In September, 1858, his vessel, the " Assistance" was 
frozen up off Cape Osborn, in the Wellington Channel, and finally 
abandoned in 1854, near M'Cormick Bay. 

The reader will search the despatches of this adventurous 
officer for discoveries made by him along those dreary shores, 
which became in succession the theatre of his exertions, at the 
head of the .Queen's Channel, and in the high latitudes he afterwards 
attained.] 



[* For particulars of this romantic voyage the reader should consult the 
interesting and clever work of Dr. Kane — U. S. Grinnell Expedition in search of Sir 
John Franklin, &c] 



192 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



[11] " Opertd to a remote and ruthless shore" 

[In the despatches of Sir E. Belcher from his winter quarters, 
Northumberland Sound, the following passages occur.] 

" I took possession of this new addition to Her Majesty's ter- 
ritories under the title of "North Cornwall," in compliment to 
His Royal Highness the Heir Apparent. Waiting to secure the 
position, ******** i returned to the beach ; 
and having hauled the boat overland, to clear the ice which had 
entrapped us, launched in the open water, and pulled along the 
south-western line of the island about seventeen miles, where we 
landed, and encamped for the night. ******** 

***** "The weather still continued thick, with 
occasional snow falls, and hiding most of the objects which I was 
so anxious to obtain. ****** 

"Throughout this very interesting search not a particle of 
drift wood has been noticed since quitting Village Point, and not 
a trace of human beings. Animal life seems to fail after quitting 
Exmouth Island. ****** 

" If our unfortunate countrymen have ' taken the floe, and 
drifted with it,' their case is hopeless. If we may judge from the 
aspects of the floes, where they have come into collision, or where 
they piled themselves in layers over forty feet on the north-western 
extremities of the islands, the feeling was disheartening. We 
noticed nothing equal to it in Melville Bay." 

[Again.] 

"If Sir John Franklin passed through this channel, to the 
southward of Barrow and Parker Islands, and met the floe moving 
westerly, he never could reach, as far as we can discover, any place 
of refuge, and in all probability drifted into the Polar Basin." 



[12] " Yet fearless here could fond M'CormicTc urge" 

[A boat and sledge excursionist on the east coast of Wellington 
Channel, and the shores of Baring Bay, in 1852. The following 
are extracts from Dr. M'Cormick's truly interesting narrative.] 

" Sad as the reflection must be, it is in vain to deny that the 

time has arrived when, indeed, it is hoping against hope, and 

which suggested to me the name of ' Forlorn Hope ' for my boat." 

[" The Forlorn Hope" taking refuge under the lee of icebergs, 

aground in Wellington Bay, is thus described.] 

[part VII.] 



NOTES. 193 

" When we had got about midway between Cape Osborn and 
this Point'' [Point Eden], " our situation became a truly perilous 
one ; the boat was taking in water faster than we could bale it out, 
and she was settling down so much as not to leave a streak free ; 
labouring and rising heavily and sluggishly to each successive sea, 
so that all expected every moment that she would fill and go down 
the first sea that struck her, from which only the most careful and 
watchful attention to the helm preserved her. Fortunately for us, 
at this critical moment, two bergs aground appeared on the port- 
bow, and I immediately ran for them, in the hope of finding the 
water smooth enough under their lee to enable us, by lowering the 
sail and lying on our oars, to thoroughly bale out all the water from 
the boat, which was now nearly full ; in this we happily succeeded 
whilst lying only a few feet from the bergs in comparatively quiet 
water, protected by their blue hard washed sides from the seas 
which broke over them to windward, rebounding upwards in 
foaming columns of surf and spray, which dashed high above their 
summits, from forty to fifty feet in height, presenting a wild scene, 
at once grand, sublime, and awful." 

[In recording an excursion to Caswall Tower, Dr. M'Cormick 
says — ] 

" I passed a whole day and night without food or shelter 
beyond what the snow-drift afforded, ******** 
When overwhelmed by the darkness of the night blending with the 
fog, and a gale approaching, we cut with a hunting-knife a trench 
in the snow-clad plain, about two feet deep, and in this truly Arctic 
bivouac, we, with our canine friends" [two Esquimaux dogs], 
"passed the night, without a tent or other clothing than our 
usual walking dress. 

" The gale which swept over us soon forming a white coverlet 
of snow-drift, protected us from the blast." ****** 
[On the traces of Sir John Franklin near Cape Eiley we have 
the following.] 

" The swampy flat, intersected by small lakes and water- courses, 
in the vicinity of Caswall Tower, is the only spot where the very 
few straggling wild fowl that alight in this barren limestone region, 
on their way north, are to be met with ; and here I have followed 
Franklin's sledge-tracks over the low shingle ridges in the direction 
of the tower, which was, doubtless, their shooting station. The 
sledges must have passed in the summer season, when the soil was 



194 AECTIC ENTEEPEISE. 

plastic enough to leave impressions of their tracks behind them. 
Caswall Tower is an isolated precipitous mount, between three and 
four hundred feet in height, rising from a plain at the head of 
Radstock Bay and Gascoigne Cove, which I ascended." * * * 
M i Cormiclcs Narrative. 



[13] " Wage with pale Osborn' s cliffs unceasing war" 

[Near Cape Osborn, " The Forlorn Hope" passed a remarkable 
isolated rock, to which Dr. M'Cormick gave the name of " Franklin's 
Beacon."] 

" After a laborious pull of four hours we reached the steep and 
almost perpendicular ridge of Cape Osborn, a bold headland of 
rounded form, white with snow, * * * * * * * This 
cape may be considered the northernmost boundary of "Welling- 
ton Strait, * * * * * At 1.45, p. m. we passed a very 
remarkable isolated mass of rock, rising abruptly from the steep 
face of this ridge about one third from the summit. 

" It bore a striking resemblance to the bust of a human figure 
of burly form, and habited in a cloak and cap ; * * * * * 
I transferred a fac-simile of it to my sketch-book under the name 
of 'Franklin's Beacon,' whose attention it could not fail to attract, 
pointing as it does to those unknown and unexplored regions which 
lie beyond, around the Northern Pole, untrodden by the foot of 
man since creation's dawn," -k**-****** — 
M'Cormick' 's Narrative. 

[It was in this part of "Wellington Strait that poor Bellot lost 
his life, August 18th, 1853.] 



[14] " Lamented Bellot ! Science' favourite child, — " 

[It appears to have been somewhere in the Wellington Chan- 
nel, about midway between Capes Grinnell and Osborn, that this 
melancholy event occurred.] 

" This unfortunate occurrence took place on the night of the 
gale, when M. Bellot with two men were driven off from the shore 
on a floe ; and shortly after, whilst reconnoitering from the top of 
a hummock, he was blown off by a violent gust of wind into a 
deep crack in the ice, and perished by drowning," * * * * 
• ''A careful meteorological journal has been kept, a tide register 

[PAET VII.] 



NOTES. 195 

at Holsteinberg, and a great many observations made on the di- 
rection, dip, and force of the magnet. These have been carried on 
by Mr. Stanton and the late lamented M. Bellot, whose industry 
in this branch of science is well proved by the mass of valuable 
matter he has left behind." — Captain Inglefield" s Report, Mh of 
October, 1853. H. M. S S. "Phamix" off Thurso. 

[To this ship (The " Phoenix") M. Beliot had been appointed, 
as supernumerary ; and at the time of his death was the bearer of 
despatches from Captain Pullen to Sir E. Belcher.] 

" He was sincerely regretted by us all. His zeal, ability, and 
quiet, unassuming manner made him indeed beloved." — Captain 
IngleftehVs Report, <$c. 

[Captain Pullen, in his deeply-interesting "Journal of the Pro- 
ceedings of H. M. Discovery Ship, " North Star," records the 
circumstances attending the fate of this gallant officer, as reported 
to him by the two men, Johnston and Hook, who had been left with 
him on the floe.] 

" Poor Bellot* s last remark to Johnston was rather singular, 
and characteristic of his idea of his duty " — ' Nothing makes me 
more happy than to think that I am not on shore ; for, considering 
it to be the last duty of an officer to be at the post of danger, I 
would rather die here, on the floe, than be there, on the shore, to be 
saved.' — 

" Deeply unfortunate as is such an occurrence, yet it affords 
me a melancholy gratification in knowing that confidence was not 
misplaced in the gallant Frenchman ; and the men speak of him 
in the highest terms. He was well appreciated by all on board 
the ship ; and it was not the first time that we knew of his zeal 
and devotion in the cause we are engaged in. I feel his loss most 
acutely, and received a shock that time only can dispel. He was 
a character that any one might feel a pride in being associated 
with." — Commander Pullen 's Journal, fyc. 
■ [The name of Kennedy being associated with that of the amiable. 
brave, but ill-fated Bellot, the present would appear a fitting- 
occasion for some slight record of the energetic daring, and sur- 
prising powers of endurance manifested by him during his ex- 
tensive winter excursions, in company with M. Bellot, along the 
frozen shores of America. 

In a voyage undertaken subsequently in Lady Franklin's 
vessel, the " Isabel," with the view to a North-east passage hf 



196 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

way of Behring's Strait, this meritorious and most enterprising 
officer was unfortunately thwarted by a mutinous crew.] 



[15] " Yet, sacred Shade ! at yon impassioned shrine" 

[Attached to the monumental column* at " Northumberland 
Depot," Beechey Island, is a marble tablet with the following 
inscription.] 

IN MEMORY 

OF LIEUT. BELLOT, 

OF THE FRENCH NAVY, 
WHO LOST HIS LIFE WHILST 
NOBLY AIDING IN SEARCH OF 

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, 

IN THE WELLINGTON CHANNEL, 

ON THE 18TH AUGUST, 1853, 

THIS TABLET, TO RECORD THE SAD EVENT, 

WAS ERECTED BY HIS FRIEND, J. BARROW. 

A.D. 1854. 



[16] " Whose portal dire led Franklin to his fate;" 

[There is scarcely a single geographical feature in the whole 
range of the Arctic regions to which the name of this eminent man 
has not somewhere been attached : while the scientific repute of 
Colonel Sabine (a name here associated with that of Sir John 
Barrow) needs but little comment.] 



[17] " And in his honoured son he lives again." 

" To the inlet running up on the west side of Mount Provi- 
dence from south south-west to north north-east, I gave the name 
of Dragleybeck, in commemoration of the birth-place of Sir John 
Barrow, Bart, and in compliment to his son, John Barrow, Esq- 
of the Admiralty, F.R.S. who, following up his father's career, 

* A clever sketch of the column is given in the Parliamentary Papers from 
the pencil of Lieutenant Emile De Bray, a French officer, who accompanied the 
Expedition, on board the Resolute, and distinguished himself on all occasions — 
-gaining the esteem and respect of both officers and men— (Vide Despatches). 

[PART YI1.] 



NOTES. 197 

has earned for himself a distinguished position in the history of 
Arctic discovery, by his noble and unceasing efforts in furthering 
the search for the brave but ill-fated Franklin and the rest of our 
long-lost countrymen. 

" No one but those who have near relations in the expedition 
can possibly have felt deeper interest in this hapless search from 
first to last than I have, unless it is my friend Mr. Barrow, whose 
untiring exertions and devotion in this noble cause stand un- 
equalled." — M'CormicJc's Narrative, %c. 



[18] " Still-vex 'd Polynia sits with brow serene;" 

[The bold excursion of this meritorious officer (Captain 
M'Clintock) along the most repulsive shores of the Polar Sea are 
well known and appreciated. In the expedition here alluded to, 
he ranged as far as the Polynia Islands.] 

" 15th June. * * * * The ice traversed this march was 
covered with snow, except off the west point of the island, where 
there are some huge grounded hummocks, and extending both ways 
from them a line of crushed-up ice. * * * It is almost im- 
possible to form a correct idea of the shape of this coast-line, it is 
so extremely low, and so deeply covered with snow ; far out we 
see sand-heaps, and far inland we find masses of ice ; the land 
and ice seem confusedly heaped together all about us, but two 
miles outside us the edge of the tremendous pack seems to rest 
upon the ground. 

" 16th June. — A continuous line of very formidable hummocks 
has been seen in the offing. * * * * * * The Polynia 
Islands lying further off shore are all pure gravel. * * * * 

" 17th June. — After taking bearings, &c. here, we travelled 
seven or eight miles to the next extreme of land, on rounding 
which we saw several islands forming a chain a few miles off shore ; 
these keep off the heavy Polar pack, and within them we have 
ordinary old floe. * * * * 

" P. M. The weather is worse if possible, we cannot advance 
against this gale, not being able to see our way, nor will we retreat 
before it. It is very mortifying to be thus arrested within one 
march of our extreme, and to be unable to get a glimpse of the 
coast beyond that which we have actually walked to ; to-morrow 
we must commence our retreat. The little sledge turned up on its 



198 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

side forms the weather end of our hurricane house ; one end of a 
ridge pole rests upon it, the other end on my compass stand. The 
sledge's sail thrown over this affords us shelter on three sides, and 
here we sit anxiously watching the weather." * * * — Journal 
ofH. M. Sledge, "Star of the North" Commander 31 i ClintocJc, 
&c. 



[19] " Pierced like a Power of life the obstructing foe" 

[Among the searching expeditions of 1850, there was one 
equipped by the Government, and which consisted of two ships of 
225 and 120 tons respectively, named, from obvious motives, the 
"Lady Franklin" and the " Sophia," and placed under the com- 
mand of Captain Penny. Another, fitted out mainly at the cost of 
Lady Franklin, comprised one vessel only, the " Prince Albert," 
schooner-rigged, of 90 tons, a dashing little craft that well did her 
duty. She was commanded by Captain (then Commander) For- 
syth, accompanied by Mr. W. Parker Snow, who served in various 
capacities, and has given in his journal a graphic description of 
one of her feats of daring]. 

" As the wind was blowing right down upon if (the ice floe) 
" and pretty fresh," he observes, " it was determined by Captain 
Forsyth boldly to try and break through the impediment, by 
forcing the ship on it under a press of canvass. Accordingly all 
sail was set, and the ship was steered direct for the narrowest and 
most broken part of the neck. As this was the first and only time 
the Prince Albert was made to come direct upon the ice, to break 
it with the force she would derive from a press of sail, we were all 
anxious to see how she would stand it ; and right well did she bear 
the test." *********** 

[After detailing the critical position of the " Prince Albert" 
under these circumstances, Mr. Snow adds — ] 

# * * * * « The next instant, with a tremenduous blow 
that for the moment made her rebound and tremble, she struck the 
ice in the exact point, and caused it to rend apart in several frag- 
ments." 



[20] " Gave to the sphere of Hope another Star ;" 

[H. M. Sledge, " Star of the North," and H. M. Ship, "North 
Star," were eminent both, in their respective spheres, and un- 

[PART VII.] 



NOTES. 199 

surpassed in their exertions to throw light on the mysterious fate of 
the " Erebus" and " Terror." 

The " North Star" was despatched in the first instance under 
command of Mr. Saunders, Master, R.N. with stores, but quickly 
changed her character to that of a Discovery Ship ; and joining 
the searching squadron of 1850, pursued a career, the exciting 
particulars of which are ably recorded in the journals of her 
commander, Captain Pullen. The successful efforts of this officer 
in the arduous task of recovering his stranded ship are entitled 
to the highest credit. 

Lieutenant Wm. Hulme Hooper was a most zealous and accom- 
plished young officer, who accompanied Captain Pullen on his 
previous boat-voyage along the Polar shores, from Icy Cape, across 
the mouth of the Mackenzie River, to Cape Bathurst, and sacri- 
ficed his health, and life to the cause. His work, entitled " Ten 
Months in the Tents of the Tuski," is full of close observation, 
and gives an interesting account of this little-known race of people. 
A marble tablet to his memory was erected at Haslar by Lady 
Franklin. 

The expedition of this year under Sir John Ross has already 
been noticed. That under Captains Austin, C.B. and Ommanney 
consisted of two ships, the " Resolute" and the "Assistance," and 
two screw-propelled steam vessels, the "Pioneer" and the "In- 
trepid." The ships had a tonnage, the one of 500, the other of 
430. Lieutenant Sherard Osborn was placed in command of the 
" Pioneer." After encountering great difficulties from the middle 
ice in Baffin's Bay, they reached Cape Riley at the mouth of the 
Wellington Channel, and there discovered and collected such 
traces as led to the certain conclusion that a prolonged sojourn 
had been made there by parties whom circumstances pointed to as 
Sir John Franklin and his crews.] 



[21] " Spoke, hut alas I told not the course to shape." 

" The greatest mystery of all is," as Dr. M'Cormick remarks, 
" that of no record having been left of their sojourn or departure ; 
so sanguine was I for a time that something might turn up to 
reward a diligent and persevering search, that I did not rest until 
I had closely examined every foot of ground for miles around." 
# # * * # — M'Cormick'' s Narrative, <$c. 

[The daring gallantry of the sledge-excursionists of the search- 



200 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

ing squadrons will long be remembered in Arctic history ; while 
the chapter that treats of the expeditions by way of Behring's 
Strait will not fail to do justice to the meritorious efforts of Captains 
Moore, Maguire, and Trollope.] 



[22] " But One came back, a partner in defeat" 

[This was the most deeply interesting of all the expeditions of 
search, and the most remarkable for its results. The ships em- 
ployed were the "Enterprise" and the "Investigator," which in 
1848 had been given to the command of Sir J. C. Ross for the 
first exploration by way of Baffin's Bay. They were fine vessels 
of 470 and 420 tons respectively, and commanded, as is well 
known, on the present occasion, the former by Captain Collinson, 
C.B. the latter by Commander (now Captain Sir Robert) M'Clure, 
From the dispatches of the latter officer the following are extracts.] 



[23] " Where wild Magellan, with impetuous sweep" 

[These Straits are dangerous and difficult, from the prevalence 
of westerly or north-westerly gales through a great part of the 
year. From this and other causes, the western currents setting 
through them acquire a velocity equal almost to that of a mountain- 
torrent. The vessels of the present expedition were provided with 
steamers, to tow them through the straits.] 



[24] " By the huge fastness of the Polar pack." 

Upon one occasion when the Investigator was in " a most 
exposed position, being upon the eastern side of a large bay, open 
to the whole pressure of the Polar pack, and surrounded with 
masses of ice sixteen and eighteen feet thick, while the grounded 
floes were from forty to sixty-seven in depth, **■*#* 
* * blasting was had recourse to, with charges from sixteen to 
sixty-five pounds ; these made little impression, except near the 
explosion, therefore a six and twenty gallon rum cask, containing 
two hundred and fifty-five pounds, was now sunk five fathoms. 
Amongst these large masses at thirty yards from the vessel its 
effect was most conclusive, shivering them to atoms, rending that 

[PART VII.] 



NOTES. 201 

to which we w T ere attached, and which was sixty-seven feet thick 
on the outer, and thirty-five on its in-shore edge, asunder, without 
the concussion being very much felt on board." — M'Clure's Des- 
patches, 8$c. H. M. Discovery Ship, " Investigator," off Cape 
Baihurst, Polar Sea. 



[25] "With the ever-varying tack a course is steer 'd." 

" Upon rounding Cape Halkett upon the morning of the 9th, 
found the ice was set close to the shore, which rendered it a passage 
of much anxiety, great labour, and imminent risk, as the wind was 
strong from East-south-east with thick fog, and the ice closing 
around us fast, so that we had barely space to work in, tacking 
frequently in five, and never beyond ten minutes, standing upon 
one tack into three fathoms and a half, and upon the other to four 
and a half and six fathoms." — iWClure's Despatches, &;c. off 
Point Warren, Polar Sea. 



[26] " Fires from the earth, and forests struck to stone." 

" September 5th, the weather, which had been squally accom- 
panied by a thick fog during the early part of the day, cleared 
towards noon, when a large volume of smoke was observed about 
twelve miles south-west and five to the eastward of the Horton, in 
the same spot that it had attracted our attention yesterday. As divers 
opinions were in circulation respecting its probable cause, and the 
ice-mate having positively reported that from the crow's nest he 
could distinguish several persons moving about dressed in white 
shirts, and observed some white tents in a hollow of the cliff, I 
certainly had every reason to imagine they were a party of Euro- 
peans in distress, convinced that no travellers would remain for so 
long a period as we had remarked the smoke, in one spot, for their 
pleasure ; therefore, to satisfy myself equally as others, I deter- 
mined to send a boat on shore, as it was now calm. The first 
whale boat, under Lieutenant Cresswell, with Dr. Armstrong and 
Mr. Miertsching, were despatched to examine into the cause, who 
on their return reported the smoke to emanate from fifteen small 
mounds of volcanic appearance, occupying a space of about fifty 
yards, the place strongly impregnated with sulphur, the lower 



202 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

mounds being about thirty feet above the sea level, the highest 
about fifty feet."— M' Clure's Despatches, %c. off Cape Bathurst, 
Polar Sea. 

" Shooting and other parties made daily excursions inland, in 
which rambles an exceedingly old Esquimaux encampment was 
met with, and a most interesting discovery of a range of hills 
composed of one entire mass of wood in every stage, from a petri- 
faction to a log fit for firewood ; many large trees were amongst 
it."— Id. 



[27] " To find in Nature's a confiding child.'"' 

[Captain M'Clure speaks of the friendly and confiding nature 
of the tribes (generally) on these distant Arctic shores.] " Shortly 
gaining courage, they returned, and, as we approached, arranged 
themselves in line upon the beach, and commenced extending their 
arms above the head (typical of friendship), which being answered 
from the boats, perfectly assured them of our amicable intentions. 
Upon landing, they evinced a most manly confidence, rubbing 
noses and embracing most vigorously. These were very cleanly, 
so that the operation was not so unpleasant as it otherwise might 
have been." — M- Clures Despatches, 8$c. off Point Warren, 
Polar Sea. 



[28] " Such was thy art: — yet once, with tended bow," 

[Captain M'Clure gives some interesting details of this strange 
story ; a few extracts are offered from his despatches.] 

*■**#**« Great, therefore, was my surprise, upon 
approaching the beach, to find, instead of being greeted with the 
usual friendly signs, that two savages, with gesticulations the 
most menacing, having bended bows with arrows on their strings, 
and one with a large knife which he brandished most significantly, 
waved us off. Taking no heed of these hostile demonstrations, 
we pulled in ; they retreated, yelling furiously. Upon our reach- 
ing the full of the beach, we made the same signs of friendship 
which we had used with the Esquimaux further west, but without 
any effect until joined by the Interpreter, who was in full native 
costume. This gave them confidence. *******" 
— M i Clure , s Despatches, 8$c. off Cape Bathurst, Polar Sea. 

[part VII.] 



NOTES. 203 

[The two savages here described were the Chief and his son, 
who had remained to defend their property ; the tribe having 
taken to their baidars with their most valuable skins, and left the 
settlement, upon observing Captain M'Clure's approach] — "Alleg- 
ing, as a reason, that they feared the ship had come to revenge the 
death of a white man they had murdered some time ago." — 
Captain Inglefield 's Report, &c. H.M.SS. " Phcenix" off Thurso. 

" Observing an old brass button suspended from the ear of the 
Chief, he said it was taken from a white man that had been killed 
by one of his tribe, who went away in his kyack when the vessel 
was seen. The white man belonged to a party which had landed 
at Point Warren, and there built a house ; nobody knew how they 
came, as they had no boat, but that they went inland. The man 
killed had strayed from the party, and that he and his son buried 
him upon a hill at a little distance. The only answer we could 
obtain as to the probable time when this transaction took place 
was, ' that it might be last year, or when I was a child.' To have 
examined the graves I was very anxious, but was prevented by the 
state of the weather becoming foggy, with fresh breeze, which 
compelled our immediate return to the ship ; so, making them a 
few presents, we parted on very amicable terms, This intelligence 
appeared of so important a nature with respect to the white man 
on the point, that I determined to remain until it became suffi- 
ciently clear to land and examine the house, which might possibly 
contain some indication of the missing expedition. This detained 
me eighteen hours ; but to have left with a doubt would have been 
a subject of perpetual regret. 

" At 2 a. m. on the following morning, the 25th, we reached the 
point. The weather being tolerably clear, the interpreter, Dr. 
Armstrong, and myself went on shore in eager expectation of dis- 
covering some clue that would lead to a knowledge of the parties ; 
but in this we were miserably disappointed ; two huts, indeed, 
were there, to excite hopes, but upon approaching them, we found 
the woodwork to be perfectly rotten and of a very old date, with- 
out any description of mark to yield the slightest information. 
* * * * ******* 

So the history of the white man will still continue a mystery." — 
M'Clures Despatches, tyc. off Cape Bathurst, Polar Sea. 



204 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

[29] " Secure in Mercy's memorable Bay.''' 

" On a view of our position, we found that we were on the 
North-west side of a large bay, whose eastern limits bore North- 
east eight miles, which, we subsequently found, formed the western 
point of Banks's Sound, and running to the South-south-west 
about seven, which was rapidly filling up with ice flowing before 
a fresh gale from the Polar Sea ; still wishing to see if any pos- 
sibility remained of getting down Barrow Strait, we weighed and 
stood as far as the ice would allow to the North-east, when, 
observing from the crow's nest no water in that direction, I 
determined to make this our winter quarters ; and, having re- 
marked upon the south side of the bank on which we had 
grounded a well-protected bay, Mr. Court was despatched to 
sound it ; and shortly making the signal that there was sufficient 
water, we bore up, and at 7. 45. a. m. anchored in four fathoms 
and a half, and that night were firmly frozen in, in what has since 
proved a most safe and excellent harbour, — which, in grateful 
remembrance of the many perils that we had (during the passage 
of that terrible Polar Sea) escaped, in reaching, we have named the 
Bay of Mercy. ***** */' — M'Clure's Despatches, 
8$c. off Gape Bathurst, Polar Sea. 

[Two years previously to this, on the 26th of October, 1850, 
the Prince of Wales Strait (between Banks or Baring Island and 
Prince Albert's Land) was traced by Captain M'Clure to its entrance 
into Barrow Strait. This discovery, which established the ex- 
istence of a North-west Passage, is noticed (as below) in the des- 
patches of this most persevering and intrepid officer, who had 
proceeded in a sledge with a travelling party from the " Inves- 
tigator."] 

" Being dissatisfied with the view obtained from Prince Albert's 
Land, respecting the waters we were now in, as to their connexion 
with Barrow Strait, which would settle the question of a North- 
west Passage, I determined to proceed in that direction with a 
travelling party, although rather late in the season, as soon as I 
felt that the vessel might be safely quitted, which I judged would 
occur after the ensuing spring tides, if at that period there was no 
commotion amongst the ice. Accordingly, upon the 21st, every- 
thing being favourable, I started with Mr. Court (second master) 

[part VII.] 



NOTES. 205 

and the men* ; the ice for two miles from the ship was so rough, 
that Lieutenant Haswell and the whole of the ship's company were 
occupied in carrying the sledge and different articles of lading. 
At 8 a. m. the sledge was finally packed, when with the fatigue 
party in charge of Mr. Wynniatt (mate), accompanied by Dr. 
Armstrong (as an amateur), we set off to the north-east. At noon 
the fatigue party, having taken us eight miles, were directed to 
return. Soon after quitting us, we got amongst very difficult ice ; 
the sledge was broken, but quickly fishing it, proceeded. Unfor- 
tunately, scarcely an hour had elapsed, when crossing a floe, the 
inequalities of which were imperceptible, it came down with such 
a crash, that it broke into pieces. This was unlucky, but pitching 
our tent, Mr. Court and Peter Thomson (Captain of the Foretop) 
started for the ship, where they arrived at 7.30 p. m., and rejoined 
the next day at 2 p. m. with a fresh and larger sledge, and a fatigue 
party with Mr. Wynniatt to carry the damaged one back. This 
party, upon my return. I found did not get on board until the fol- 
lowing day, being stopped by heavy snow drift, but having a tent 
and provisions, did not suffer. As soon as the new comers were 
refreshed, the sledge was packed, and by 3 p. m. we were again 
off, continuing our course without any further disaster until 3.45 
p. m. of the 26th, where we had the extreme gratification of pitch- 
ing our tent upon the shores of Barrow Strait, nearly on the line 
as represented in the charts were Sir Edward Parry has very 
correctly marked the loom of the land." — M l Clure's Despatches, 
&c. off Cape Bathurst, Polar Sea. 



[30] " Closed all the hatchivays, and the vessel housed" 

[A winter having at length been spent in the Bay of Mercy, 
which is recorded by Captain M'Clure as one of unusual mildness, 
and productive thus of great success to the sportsmen, — the suc- 
ceeding season soon closed in another winter of apparently great 
severity. Under the influence of its approaches, in August, he 
says,] * * * * * * * * "I felt assured that the 
winter had again fairly set in, and all hopes of any release this 
year totally annihilated, * * * * Having previously 



* Robt. Calder, Captain of the Forecastle. Robt. Tiffeny, Captain of the Main- 
top. Mich. Flynn, Quarter-Master. George Brown, A.B. P. Thomson, Captain 
of the Foretop. James Saunders, Private, Royal Marines. 



206 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

determined what course I should adopt under circumstances thus 
unfavourable, upon the 8th September I announced my intentions 
to the crew of sending half of them to England next April, with 
all the officers not in charge of stores, via Baffin's Bay (taking the 
boat from Cape Spencer) and the Mackenzie, detaining the re- 
mainder with the hope of extricating the vessel during the sum- 
mer of 1853, or, failing that, to proceed with sledges in 1854 by 
Port Leopold, our provisions admitting of no other arrangement. 
******** * TJpon the 25th October, closed 
the hatchways and housed the vessel over. ****** 
The 26th being the second anniversary of our discovery of the 
" Passage," and the last that we should all be together, the occa- 
sion was celebrated by a small additional allowance of provisions, 
and an extra glass of grog, which had the effect of putting all in 
high spirits, so that the evening was passed most jovially in sing- 
ing and dancing. On November 8th, completed the banking up 
and other outside work, finally terminating our winter arrange- 
ments on the 18th, by covering the upper deck with eighteen inches 
of snow. The deer for the last few days have been coming from 
the southward to their winter quarters among the ravines and 
sand-hills ; ninety have been met with at one time and forty at 
another, but so very wild that few have been shot. Our two 
seasons' experience show that these animals do not migrate to the 
south, as is generally supposed ; but bear the extreme rigour of 
the climate, and exist upon the scanty herbage, chiefly the dwarf- 
willow, from off which they break the snow with their feet, 
which tapping can be heard at a considerable distance, when the 
weather is calm, and frequently leads to their discovery. The 
hares and Ptarmigan have also descended from the high ground to 
the sea ridges." — M' Clare's Despatches, 8$c. off Cape Batharst, 
Polar Sea. 



[31] " Behold! all-sudden, as some sight that comes" 

[For records of this extraordinary and providential relief, and 
of the circumstances immediately preceding and following from it, 
reference should be had to the Despatches of Captain M'Clure ; 
more especially the letters of that officer to Captain Kellett, and 
subsequently to the Secretary of the Admiralty. From these the 
following are extracts.] 

[part -vii.] 



NOTES. 



207 



" I would, were it possible, endeavour to convey the state of 
feeling which animated not only myself, but every soul, when his 
sudden and most unexpected appearance on the floe, about 200 
yards from the ship, was remarked. All description must fall 
below the reality. Only imagine, if you can, a whole crew which 
had to this moment no idea of any ship but their own being 
within the limit of these dreary regions, cut off from the world, 
their isolated situation, and (in defiance of all exertion) a little 
despondent, when accidentally a strange, remarkable, and solitary 
figure is seen rapidly advancing, showing gesticulations of friend- 
ship, similar to those used by the Esquimaux, black as Erebus 
from the smoke created by cooking in his tent. My surprise, I 
may almost add dismay, was great in the extreme. I paused in 
my advance, doubting who or what it could be, whether a denizen 
of this or the other world ; however, the surprise was momentary. 
' I am Lieutenant Pirn, late of the " Herald." Captain Kellett 
is at Melville Island.' And as the apparition was thus indubitably 
discovered to be solid, real English flesh and blood, to rush at and 
seize him by the hand was but the first impulsive gush of feeling. 
The heart was too full for the tongue to articulate, as this dark 
stranger communicated his errand of mercy. The sick, forgetting 
their maladies, jumped from their hammocks, the healthy their 
despondency ; — all flew to the only hatchway that was open, and in 
far less time than it takes me to write this, all hands were on deck. 
Such a scene can never be forgotten ; all was now life, activity, and 
joyful astonishment. In the twinkling of an eye the whole crew 
were changed ; but I shall cease to say more, for I might write 
much, but never could, even faintly, convey the most remote idea 
of the sensation created by this most opportune and providential 
arrival of your relieving party." — Commander M'Clure to Capt. 
Kellett, C.B.,H.M.S. "Resolute," Dealy Island, 2nd May, 1853. 



[32] " Whose faithful bosom bore thee to the end." 

It was the anxious desire of Captain M'Clure "to further 
continue in the country, with the chance of being able to extricate 
his ship;" but at length, "in consequence of there not being 
a sufficiency of hands to work the ship, the only alternative that 
remained was to abandon her, which, it is my intention to do 
reluctantly indeed) as soon as the stores and provisions have been 



208 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

landed to form a depot, which articles are enumerated in the 
accompanying list, and securing the vessel with one bower anchor 
by the stream, the former in two, the other in one fathom water, 
having one hundred and sixty fathoms of chain, which will, from 
her sheltered position, hold her against the ice, and throw her 
upon a mud bank, where she may remain for ages, and possibly 
become a home for other wanderers through these dreary seas." 

* * * * * Commander M i Clure to the Secretary of the 
Admiralty, H. M. D. S. " Investigator,'''' Bay of Mercy. 

* ***** « That disagreeable duty was carried into 
effect upon the evening of the 3rd, when she was left with her 
colours flying, the hatchways and skylights all covered and battened 
down, and every precaution taken to prevent moisture from pene- 
trating between decks ; she was perfectly water-tight and ser- 
viceable." — Commander M'Clure to the Secretary to the Admi- 
ralty, H. M. S. " Resolute," Dealy Island. 



[33] " Marked the fond course of faithful Collinson." 

[The " Enterprise" and the " Investigator" parted company 
at the Straits of Magellan, and never met again. The course of 
each has been most remarkable, and the hazards encountered 
almost unparalleled.] 



[34] " Pure-minded man I — Affliction saw in thee" 

[The oneness of purpose that animated this distinguished officer 
throughout, cannot be too highly praised. He searched, and 
searched, and searched, with an enduring zeal not easily to be 
diverted from the great object he had at heart, and a patient 
perseverance to be discouraged by nothing, save, perhaps, the 
startling disclosures of the Finlayson Islands : — Though whether 
any, and what connection, may be presumed to exist between 
the scanty relics discovered there, and the more fearful remains 
reported by the Esquimaux to Dr. Rae, it is for others to deter- 
mine.] 

[part VII.] 



NOTES. 209 

[35] " And fatal triumph sanctifies the claim.'" 

[The writer of a work of the imagination, on a subject to 
himself wholly unprofessional, may well pause ere he hazard his 
sentiments upon a point which, to some perhaps, may still appear 
open to question. It will, however, be safe to presume that, to 
the mind of every reflecting man, the tidings reported to Dr. Eae, 
taken in connection with the fearful evidence of which that gentle- 
man was the bearer to England, will appear as proof only too 
convincing of the triumph of Sir John Franklin over every obstacle 
in the accomplishment of the North-west passage.] 



[36] " Unwearied Rover ! who more prompt than thoiC 

[We have but to become acquainted with the history of 
Captain Inglefi eld's untiring exertions in the Arctic Seas, fully to 
feel and appreciate them. In his last voyage, especially, throughout 
the expansive and perilous waters of Baffin's Bay, this officer dis- 
tinguished himself, not less by the rapidity and energy of his 
movements, than by his wakeful and unceasing devotion to the 
cause of science ; a cause, nevertheless, still secondary to that 
which was the stirring motive of a voyage, the incidents of which 
are graphically described by Captain Inglefield, in a volume 
entitled, "J. summer Search for Sir John Franklin" $c. 

On the remote shores of that great Bay, chosen as the field of 
his efforts, Captain Inglefield found some interesting natives, his 
intercourse with whom is pleasingly depicted in his work ; and, 
with regard to his scientific industry, the sentiments of high 
authorities are here offered.] 

* * * * * * * * « The new official chart of the Polar 
Regions shows how many errors of former delineation of the head- 
lands, gulfs, and islands of Baffin Bay, have been corrected by 
him, and how he has obtained entirely new data respecting Smith 
Sound, which go far to settle the belief that Franklin must have 
taken the route of Wellington Channel. 

" Acquainted as we were with the very untoward circumstances 
under which Commander Inglefield volunteered to take the com- 
mand of the small private vessel, the " Isabel," and seeing the 
energy with which, in overcoming all difficulties, he carried out 
the wishes of Lady Franklin and the subscribers to the expedition, 
we might well admire results which, in the words of the first of 

P 



210 ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 

living authorities on such a subject, Sir Edward Parry, "have 
placed Commander Inglefield among the most distinguished of our 
Arctic navigators :" * * * * * * * Extract from 
A letter of the President and Vice-President of the R. G. 
Society, to His Grace the Duke of Northumberland. 

* * # * * * "Aft this has been performed in four 
months, and all accomplished without the drawback of a single 
accident ; every obstacle having been overcome by his persevering 
energy, and every vain temptation resisted by his singleness of 
purpose, altogether forming, in my estimation, one of the most 
extraordinary voyages on record." — Report on Commander 
Inglefield 's Arctic Voyage, by Sir Francis Beaufort, Hydro- 
grapher of the Admiralty. 



[37] " A faithful band of Patriot-Rulers rise," 

[The allusion here is to the Hudson's Bay Company. That 
great Association dates its origin from the year 1668, established, 
as is well known, for the traffic in furs, and invested by its 
charter with supreme authority over fifty tribes of native Indians, 
ranging a territory more extensive than the whole of Europe. 
But the spirit of that Charter, no less than the inclinations and 
interests of the Governing Body itself, prompted to frequent 
research along the intricate coasts that bounded its domain to the 
north. Under such cogent motives, many daring explorations 
have been effected by its officers, as well as others who, from time 
to time, became enlisted in its service : of such there are many 
instances, to which occasional reference has already been made in 
these pages : but, in more recent times, this great Company has 
distinguished itself for an untiring devotion to the Arctic cause, 
and a ready and unsparing employment of its means for the 
furtherance of discovery : nor are these patriotic exertions yet at 
rest ; with the view of further clearing up the painfully-lingering 
mystery that still envelopes the fate of Sir John Franklin, and the 
officers and crews of the " Erebus" and " Terror," the Hudson's 
Bay Company have equipped expeditions, for the indefatigable 
efforts of which, in so sacred a cause, the names of Rae, Anderson, 
and Stewart are an all-sufficient guarantee.] 

THE END. 



211 



EXPEDITIONS 

SENT IN SEARCH OF 

SIR JOHN ERANKLIN, K.G.H. AND THE CREWS 

OF HER MAJESTY'S 

DISCOVERY SHIPS, "EREBUS" AND "TERROR." 



Officers in command. Vessels. 

Sir James Clarke Ross, Kt Enterprise . . . . } , „ . ~ 

Captain Bird Investigator . . . j 

Mr. Saunders, Master, R.N North Star 1849. 

Captain Collinson, C. B Enterprise. ... } -ioka 

Captain (now Sir Robert) M'Clure, Kt.Investigator.... j ibb() ' 

Captain Austin, C. B Resolute "] 

Captain Ommanney Assistance .... L^ 

Lieutenant Bertie Cator Intrepid f 

Lieutenant SherardOsborn Pioneer J 

Captain Penny Lady Franklin ) ^r^ 

Captain Stewart^ Sophia j bDU# 

Captain De Haven Advance ) i«f;n 

Lieutenant Griffin Rescue j 

Grinnell's U. S, Expedition. 

Captain Sir John Ross, C. B Felix 1850. 

Hudson's Bay Company. 

Captain Forsyth Prince Albert. 1850. 

Lady Franklin's Vessel. 

22SS5^::::rr.:::::::::: } "- ^- ^- 

Lady Franklin's Vessel. 

Captain Sir Edward Belcher, C. B Assistance ....*) 

Captain Kellett, C. B Resolute Iiqso 

Captain M'Clintock Intrepid M»W- 

Captain Sherard Osborn Pioneer J 

Dr. M'Cormick Boat-voyage.. 1852. 



212 EXPEDITIONS, ETC. 

Officers in command. Vessels. 

Captain Inglefield Isabel 1852. 

Lady Franklin's Vessel. 

Captain Inglefield Phoenix 1853-4. 

Captain Kennedy Isabel 1853. 

Lady Franklin's Vessel. 

Captain Moore Plover -. 

Captain Maguire Plover j g enr i no .' 

Captain Trollope Rattlesnake... V n. .* 

Captain Kellett, C. B Herald ' 

Mr. Shedden NancyDawson 

(Private Yacht). 

Mr. Anderson ) Tjr , , ~r> n 

Mr. Stewart Hudson s Bay Company. 






Sir John Richardson, C. B. — Boat-voyage. 
Dr. Rae — Boat- voyage, and extensive journeys. 

Captain Pullen ) -p 

Lieutenant W. Hulme Hooper j ^ oat - vo y a g e - 

Dr. Kane Advance 1853-4. 

(Grinnell's U. S. Expedition.) 

Captain Hartstein 1855. 

(U. S. Expedition.) 



EREATA. 

Page 145 line 25 . . For their read thine. 

146 — 17. .For necessary read necessarily. 

147 — 13 . . For darkness read deadness. 

159 — 23 . . For maynote read magnete. 

160 — 8. .For interprising read enterprising. 

186 — 14. .For speculce read spiculce. 



ARCTIC ENTERPRISE. 



SUBSCRIBERS. 

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His Grace the Duke of Sutherland, K.G 

The Earl of Carlisle, K.G 

The Earl of Shaftesbury 

The Earl Waldegrave, C.B 

The Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. M.P 

The Lord Ashburton, P.C 2 

Acland, Sir T. Dyke, Bart. M.P 2 

Back, Captain Sir George, R.N 3 

Barrow, Sir George, Bart * 1 

Barrow, John, Esq F.R.S. F.SA 10 

Barrow, William P. Esq. B.N 

Beaufort, Admiral Sir Francis, K.C B 

Berkeley, Hon. Grantley Fitzhardinge 

Bethell, Sir Richard, M.P. (Sol. Gen.) 

Bockett, Rev. B. B 

Brown, John, Esq. F.R.S. N.A 

Clifford, Rear Admiral Sir Augustus, Bart. C.B 

Cobley, Rev. Charles 

Cockerell, C. R. Esq 

Collinson, Captain Richard, R.N. C.B 

De Vries, J. N. Esq. R.N 

Emmet, George N. Esq 

Evans, Joshua, Esq 

Franklin, Lady . 

Gambier, Rear Admiral 

GeU, Mrs 



214 SUBSCRIBERS. 

NUMBER OP COPIES. 

Godfrey, J. T. Esq 1 

Hawker, Admiral 1 

Hudson's Bay Company 10 

Hughes, Rev. J. B. (Head Master, Tiverton Gram. Sch.) 2 

Huxley, William, Esq 1 

Inglefield, Captain E. A. R.N .. 2 

King, Rev. Isaac 1 

Levesque, Peter, Esq . 2 

Macbride, J. D. Esq. D.C.L. (Principal of Magd. Hall, Ox.) 4 

M'Clintock, Captain, R. N 2 

M'Clure, Captain Sir Robert, Kt. R.N 1 

M'Cormick, R. Esq. M.D. R.N 1 

Maguire, Captain Rochfort, R.N 2 

Majendie, Mrs 1 

Mangles, Captain James, R.N. F.R.S 1 

Molyneux, Mrs , . . 1 

Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey, F.R.S 2 

Ogle, Admiral Sir Charles, Bart 1 

Ommanney, Captain Erasmus, R.N. F.R.S.A 2 

Osborn, Captain Sherard, R.N 1 

Parry, Rear Admiral Sir W. Edward, Kt 4 

Paterson, Rev. J. M 1 

Patteson, Rev. W 1 

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Pearce, Stephen, Esq , , . . . . 1 

Pigot, Admiral Sir Hugh, K.C.B. K.C.H 1 

Pim, Lieut. Bedford, C. R.N 4 

Pym, Admiral Sir Samuel, K.C.B , 1 

Plasket, Thomas Henry, Esq 2 

Richards, Captain, R.N 1 

Richardson, Sir John, M.D. C.B. . . „ 1 

Ross, Rear Admiral Sir John, C.B , 4 



SUBSCRIBERS. 215 

NUMBER OF COPIES. 

Sabine, Colonel, V.P.R.S 1 

Scoresby, Rev. William, D.D. F.R.SS. Lond. and Edinb. 

Memb. Inst, of France 2 

Smith, Francis C. Esq 1 

Symonds, Rev. B. P. D.D. Warden of Wadh. Coll. Oxford. 2 

Taylor, William, Esq. M.D , 1 

Tubb, Miss > 4 

Valpy, Rev. Gabriel 2 

Vaipy, Rev. Francis a . 1 

Warrener, Robert, Esq 1 

Watson, J. Esq 1 

Williams, George, Esq „ . . . . 1 

Willock, Sir Henry 1 

Wilson, Charles, Esq 1 

Witham, Henry, Esq 2 



" Greenwich Hospital. 
" Sir, 

" I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your 
note of the 7th instant, accompanying a MS. Poem on Arctic Enter- 
prise, of which you request my perusal. I regret to say that a painful 
complaint, under which I have been long suffering, renders me wholly 
unable to give that attention to your production which I might other- 
wise have been able to give it. I have, in my sick bed, glanced 
through the Sixth Part, to which you have particularly directed my 
attention ; and I beg to thank you for the kind and flattering manner 
in which you have been pleased to notice my labours in Arctic 
Discovery. 

" Being wholly unable to do more than this, in consequence of 
my state of health, I now return the MS. 

" I should be glad to know what price you put upon each copy 
of your Poem, and have the honor to remain, 

' ' Sir, your most obedient Servant, 

"W. E. PARRY. 
" C. H. Abkahall, Esq." 



^ 



Sir, 



216 

" Greenwich Hospital. 



"Be so good as to put my name down as a 
Subscriber for Four Copies of your Poem entitled "Arctic Enterprise." 
" I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 

"V.E. PAEEY, Rear Admiral. 
" C. H. Abrahall, Esq." 



" London. 
" Dear Sir, 

" Mr. Abrahall having submitted his Historical 
Poem to my inspection, I have no hesitation in saying that as its 
object is to uphold the character of the Koyal Navy, and to do justice 
to all who were employed on discovery and research in the Arctic 
Eegions, I can recommend it as deserving the patronage of the Lords 
Commissioners of the Admiralty, to whom he is desirous of dedicating 
his well- written poetical work. 

" I am, dear Sir, 
" With truth and regard, your obedient Servant, 

« JOHN ROSS. 
" Capt. W. A. B. Hamilton, E.N. 
" Sec. &c. &c. &c." 



" Admiralty. 
" Dear Sir, 

" I have read your Poem with interest, and am 
glad to become a Subscriber for Ten Copies. You must have studied 
much to have collected so many historical facts ; and I am not more 
surprised at this, than I am at the composition, which appears to me 
to possess great merit. 

" Wishing you all the success which I think your Poem deserves, 
" I remain, dear Sir, your humble Servant, 
" C. H Abrahall, Esq." " JOHN BAEEOW. 



HOPE AND CO. 16, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, LONDON. 



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